A World of Difference
by Shadow Master
Summary: DBZBtVS crossover You ever go through life thinking you know exactly who you are and what you are? Have you ever had the truth kept from you by higher beings? For one Xander Harris the answers to these questions will be a big and loud YES.
1. Chapter 1

"A World of Difference" By Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen

email : This is to make clear beyond a reasonable doubt that I do not own either the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or the Anime series "Dragonball Z" in any way, shape or form. They are the property of their original creators and as such I am making no money whatsoever from this fanfic or the use of the characters, plot elements, context contained therein. I am writing this fanfic purely for my own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of those who choose to read it. Therefore it would be greatly appreciated if the owners of these two shows and all affiliated companies would refrain from engaging in legal matters with me in an attempt to gain money from me or send me to prison. For the former they should keep in mind that I am currently between jobs and thus do not have a lot of cash so any currency they gain from me will in no way cover the legal costs. As for the latter I think it would be pure overkill to send me to prison just for writing a fanfic involving Buffy and DBZ characters without legal consent especially if I am not making any money off of it.

Note 1: For those of you interested in knowing exactly when this fan fiction crossover takes place it will be halfway through the "Judge" arc in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As for the DBZ side of things I think it will be rather obvious once it gets to that point.

Note 2: For those of you readers who are strict adherents to canon and insist that the information laid down in the DBZ universe be followed to the letter I would advise you to stop right here and turn around. While I will keep the majority of the information concerning the DBZ universe intact there will be changes, some of them significant, so I can tell the sort of story I want to tell in this fan fiction crossover. This is because I see fanfic as a way to explore the multitude of 'What if' possibilities and change how things originally went in new and interesting ways. So again if you hate it when authors change things from how they were shown in the original shows then stop reading immediately. Thank you and now on with the show…

_**A World of Difference**_

_**Planet Vegeta, Twenty-Seven Years Ago**_

_**The Saiyan Infant Departure Station North**_

It was another typical day on the Saiyan home world of Vegeta and no one much less the supervisor of the northern Saiyan Infant Departure Station Matao expected it to be otherwise. It had been like this ever since he had been assigned this position and he expected it to continue for many years to come. That was not to say that he'd be opposed to some change in the daily routine, like maybe a full scale war, but knew that even if something interesting did happen he'd likely still be here doing the same old job. One of the curses of being born with a pitifully low power level is that you only get one chance to prove yourself capable of being a warrior. If you fail you either die or get reassigned to some menial and often humiliating position to live out the remainder of your life. Most Saiyans, no matter what their power level, would sooner die than be anything but a warrior and so it was with him. When he had failed to defeat a small group of resistance fighters on one of Lord Frieza's worlds, he had charged those fools head on, not to make one last attempt at victory, but to make sure he died in battle. After all if he died then at least the others could say he went out like a true Saiyan.

_Instead I get carted back to Vegeta by one of Frieza's cronies and tossed in a restoration chamber making sure I live the rest of my life in this dump!_ Matao thought as he aggressively went through the day's departure files on his display pad, _It's pathetic when the only pleasure I get is from making sure the rest of the weaklings working here are just as miserable as I am._

Out of the numerous people working in the building, the only reason why he had been assigned the position of supervisor was because he was the strongest one of the whole lot that had been assigned to the place once construction had finished. While there were some workers here he had to keep an eye on, Saiyans just like him, most of them were just members of the various races that Frieza had conquered. He knew they were weaklings that even when outfitted with some of the most potent blasters currently available couldn't hack it on the battlefield. In terms of physical strength and hand-to-hand combat they were even more pathetic so he didn't have a thing to worry about as far as one of them trying to kill him and take his job. Only the other Saiyans working here constituted a threat and he made sure to 'deal' with the ones strong enough to challenge him before they got any bright ideas.

Looking at the busy lackeys running around beneath the catwalk he was standing on, he examined each of them carefully to make sure they were doing their job and not screwing around with the equipment. While the incidents were few, there had been a few cases in the past where some rebel factions had bribed a worker in a facility just like this one to reprogram the space-pods arrival co-ordinates for the nearest sun. Fortunately, most of those dumb enough to take the bribes were also too stupid to cover their asses properly and got caught every time. It was when he reached the last few pods in the final row that he spotted something a little odd. A med-team from the local hospital was wheeling in the latest newborn Saiyan, same as always, but for some reason there were two royal guards accompanying the doctors. They weren't the kind that would be seen in the company of the King but they definitely worked at the palace.

_Hmmmm, what could be so interesting about a newborn that would get those snobby assholes to provide an escort?_ Matao thought as he considered heading down there himself to ask what was going on.

Unfortunately he would not be given time to decide as almost immediately alarms started blaring throughout the complex sending the weaklings into a panic filled frenzy while the stronger ones merely wondered what the hell was going on. Dashing over to one of the computer interfaces built into the wall he typed in his access code and tried to find out what had set off the alarms. There were no specific types of alarms given to different problems so it could be anything from an all out assault on the planet by enemies of Frieza to simply a serious malfunction in the complex's power systems.

Once his password and security recognition code was entered he decided to first check the more extreme of the possibilities by accessing one of the many orbital satellites to see if there was anything dangerous in orbit. Three seconds later he cursed whatever gods were listening for the shitty hand the Saiyan people had been dealt and at the same time knew what he had to do. Closing the vid-screen showing the massive energy ball heading towards the planet he immediately began to initiate the only emergency procedure that might do anyone any good. Surprisingly he was completely calm as he began to use his command codes to bypass the bulk of the preparatory steps that would normally be allowed to run under different circumstances. He knew it came from the inescapable realization that there was nothing he could do to save himself from what was coming towards the planet's surface. Precious seconds were ticking away and the only thing he had time for was what he was doing right now as fast as he could. Entering the final series of commands while blocking the safety and preventative protocols from initiating he activated the sequence that he hoped would give the Saiyan race a chance.

"Emergency launch program activated. Emergency launch program activated." Said the mechanical voice of the complex's computer as one after another the hatches to the space pods slammed shut, "Please step away from all launch platforms. Please step away from all launch platforms."

"Matao! What are you doing?" asked one of the royal guards down below while the other one seemed to be trying to get the baby they had been escorting out of the pod without causing unnecessary damage.

"A giant energy ball has been launched at the planet! I think it came from Frieza's ship!" he replied honestly since it served little purpose to lie with his death mere moments away.

Naturally both the guards as well as everyone else who had heard his reply looked up at him in disbelief, unable to understand why the inter-galactic warlord that they had been serving for the past few decades would being attempting to destroy the planet. Matao himself could not come up with a comprehensible reason why tailed tyrant would destroy a people that had served him loyally for so long. Regardless of their disbelief both of the royal guards stepped away from the launch platforms where the energy launch fields had almost reached capacity around the space pods. While some might have challenged his decision if they had been given more time to think things through in the middle of such shocking news their minds reflexively did what they always did. They deferred to the judgment of the person in charge of the complex and did as they were instructed. As the ground began to shake and an enormous charge of energy became noticeable in the very air the pods shot upwards through their launch tubes and into the air. As the last one shot out of his sight, the one containing the baby escorted by the royal guards, he decided to do the one thing he any true Saiyan would do in a situation such as this.

"LONG LIVE THE SAIYAN RACE!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he brought his ki field up to its maximum, "DEATH TO THE TYRANT FRIEZA! WE WILL BE AVENGED!"

Thus it came to pass, his dying worlds and actions declaring for the last time where his loyalties lied, that Matao died as he was engulfed in a geyser of molten rock that exploded from beneath the complex, obliterating everything and everyone there.

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While millions upon millions of lives were snuffed out as the energy sphere the size of a moon burrowed deeper and deeper into the planet, the warlord Frieza and his subordinates, Zarbon and Dodoria, watched the event from a safe distance. For the warlord, it was a joyous time, as he watched the race that had once threatened his rule and plagued his dreams with images of an uprising were being wiped out by his own attack. He could just picture the dirty little monkeys, dying one by one as their world fell apart around them. Laughing the laugh of the almost insane, he knew it would only be a matter of moments before his death sphere reached the planet's core destabilizing it and causing the entire world to explode in an impressive show of destruction. Inside the capital ship, Zarbon and Dodoria watch with villainous grins of their own as the apes that might one day have become a serious annoyance. Neither of them will openly admit it, but they too feared the growing power of the Saiyan race but covered this emotional weakness up with ceaseless mocking of the tailed warriors. With the destruction of the planet Vegeta, they can at last put their unease to rest with the knowledge that with the exception of four, the entire Saiyan race was no more. Both believed it was only a matter of time before those four were eliminated as well with the execution being delayed only by their entertainment value. As the planet below finally exploded in a brilliant flash of light, all three considered the problem of the Saiyans over and done with.

However, the three malevolent beings did not perceive the one in a million occurrence that would spirit away a wild card warrior, not only from death but also from ever being discovered by those that would mean him harm as well. Mere seconds before the planet detonated, twenty space pods that had been launched by Matao were almost at the uppermost edge of the planet's atmosphere after which they would finally enter space. Unfortunately, just as they were about cross the final kilometer, planet Vegeta exploded and it is then that both chance and chaos decided to roll the proverbial dice.

Now, it is not exactly a rare occurrence for a planet to explode, especially when warriors aligned with Frieza are known to be in the area, and as such the phenomena has been quite thoroughly studied with a wide variety of scientific equipment. From the primitive to the sophisticated, devices of all sorts have been used in order to comprehend exactly what happens from the first signs of instability to the slow decay of energy afterwards. While it is true that roughly ninety-five percent of what happens when a planet explodes has been recorded, studied and clarified, the remaining five percent remains a mystery. That is because when a planet is obliterated, it releases such a torrent of energy that even sensors fitted with special filters or regulators wind up either temporarily blinded, or incapable of making any sense of what they are focused on. Thus far, even the most advanced science vessel would find it impossible to make heads or tails of these blacked out areas. Given that Frieza's ship is geared more for combat and leisure than scientific analysis, he is even less capable of determining what is going on in these areas. That fact, and that fact alone, is the key to what happens next going unnoticed and potentially changing the universe forever.

In this blacked out area where no sensor can see, tears in space, time and reality are opening and shutting randomly with the destination changing each time. It is the sheer force and power behind the destruction of the planet that causes these tears to form, and such is the case with every other planet that has met a similar fate. Rips in the very fabric of the universe, leading to realms as varied as imaginings of every sentient being in the galaxy, and heading right for them are the twenty space pods launched by Matao. Some might think this to be a stroke of good luck in that it provides the chance some of the Saiyan race might survive the destruction of their home world. However, there is more risk involved because while the tears are open and they do lead to a place where the space pod occupants might be safe they are inherently unstable due to the chaotic nature of the planet's destruction. As the space pod farthest in front of the group launched by Matao begins to pass through the threshold of one such tear it is cut violently in two as the portal closes before the craft can fully pass through. Ten others meet a similar fate with some being severed closer to the front while others might have made it had they entered only a moment earlier. With each tick of the clock more and more of the space pods are destroyed occupant and all as bad timing or spatial instability tear them apart. In the end only four space pods can be said to have made it to the other side of the tears in relatively good condition.

The first entered a tear with only the rear portion of its outer hull torn off. While this made certain that the craft would never fly again once it touched down, it did not compromise life support functions or the stable atmosphere in the cockpit. If one were to look into the portal to catch a peek of the world, this Saiyan child was to be deposited on they would see a bizarre sight indeed. Creatures and beings of every sort dwelt there some humanoid while others clearly not with the ones most closely resembling the Saiyans being treated as mindless cattle. Beings of green skin, red eyes and two tiny horns on their foreheads dwelt there as well and were the most hideous dancers you ever saw. They would make a future Zeppo seem like a member of the top boy band in his nation by comparison. Would this Saiyan child be reduced to a life of servitude like those it resembled in this world or would its power be recognized by the locals and respected? Only time would tell for certain.

The second entered a tear that was unstable with arcs of unknown energy dancing back and forth along its edges. As the vessel began to cross the event horizon of the anomaly the energy that circled around the edges appeared to attack the craft with a fury shorting out systems and causing the occupant great pain. No one could say what effect this energy would have on the Saiyan child inside or that it would even survive but as one glimpsed at the world it was about to enter no one could dispute the fact that any positive after-effects would be most welcome. For in this realm, a barren wasteland with a blood red sky, dwelt demons of the most vicious and deadly sort. It was an environment where only the strong survived and if one didn't become strong quick then one would most certainly die. Would this Saiyan child survive or would his life be snuffed out before it could even comprehend where it was? Only time would tell for certain.

It was the third and the fourth though that, if any had the ability to, should watch most carefully. For while they managed to pass through their respective tears relatively unscathed as well their passage was most different from the other two. For one, the tears that the other two had passed through were a full fifty meters apart from one another while the ones that these last two entered were just an inch or two from having their edges touch one another. However it is the moment just before the two Saiyan space pods touch the even horizon that one should pay extra special super attention to above all others. For it is then that chance and chaos co-operate so for a brief period what should be impossible for such scrambled phenomena becomes possible. For a period of ten seconds the two portals become linked and against all odds their destinations match if only in that both pods will go to the same dimension but not the same point in space. For the one on the left it will be cast into deep space before crash landing on a world ruled by a space faring race believed by all who serve them to be gods. They rule the beings that live there using advanced technology disguised as sorcery to inspire fear and devotion in their subjects.

The one on the right though would cross over into the other dimension just inside a star system on a course directly for the sole populated planet. This planet populated by over six billion sentient inhabitants held many secrets, some kept by the dominant species while others were known only to a handful, so one more being added to the pile shouldn't attract any attention by the locals. However, to those beings that sit above all others on a plain of existence few are aware of- much less capable of reaching- sense the space pod's approach all too easily. Much like a rock being thrown into a pond, these beings sensed the ripple caused by the transfer of an object from one dimension to another.

Reaching out with their ascended powers, they probed this unknown craft to determine its nature and potential for trouble. What they found was enough to cause half of them great concern while the others were merely astonished at how the small baby inside could alter the course of the future. With little hesitance and a flicker of their power the Saiyan space pod vanished just outside of the range of the satellites circling Earth. To the realm of The Powers That Be it went where the fate of its sole occupant would be decided by those charged with directing the forces of Good against the evils of the world.

Little do the near omniscient beings realize that the actions this child will take, this Armec, son of the Saiyan woman Velva, will reshape the future of the Earth in ways none could predict.

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_**Realm of the Powers That Be**_

"Okay next item up for the discussion is the unknown alien space pod and its occupant." Said a man's voice that sounded like the bailiff at the beginning of a trial, "This council will now open the floor to all members to hear suggestions on how this matter should be dealt with."

"I don't see why we're having this discussion at all." Said a particularly grumpy and impatient sounding voice that was most certainly female, "We all saw the same thing when we used our power to scan the craft as well as the beast inside. Both the craft and its occupant must be destroyed immediately."

A rumbling of agreement swept through the room as at least a third of those present agreed with the statement and the proposed course of action.

"Aren't you being a little harsh?" asked a voice belonging to a wise sounding elderly man, "This isn't some sub-sentient animal we are dealing with here. Our scans conclusively proved that this child is capable of the same level of thought and reasoning as humans down on Earth. Surely, there is a way that the potential damage the boy could cause might be minimized without killing him."

This statement was met with whispering agreement of another third of the room with the undecided remaining third taking his words quite seriously. This was not surprising as the wise old man was among the eldest and wisest of the council thus his words carried much weight.

"No, I do not think I am being harsh! I think I am being perfectly rational and prudent in my judgment on this matter." Mrs. Grumpy replied putting more vigor into her voice, "While he may look like a human on the outside, there is a beast inside of him that could kill thousands if released. We have painstakingly planned out the next century straight in our campaign against the forces of evil, but all will come to naught if we allow this monster to live!"

No one could dispute this as it was true that the council known as The Powers That Be had went to great lengths to plan the next century of their campaign against Evil and its minions. None wanted to even contemplate what might happen if some random element were to be introduced into the mix. Not only would it bode ill for the future of the Light but it would mean all their hard work would have been in vain. Half of the room made noises agreeing with the importance and value in making sure that their game plan for the next century went just as they wanted it to.

"I propose an alternative means of dealing with the child that will ensure that he does not interfere with our plan but also will allow him to live." Mr. Elderly Wiseman declared as he made sure his voice was heard by all, "I suggest that we use our power to bind the abilities of his people present within him and seal them away within his body. With our combined power it should be child's play to restrain the necessary biological elements as well as put mental blocks in place to keep his violent tendencies at bay."

This was met with sounds of thoughtful consideration and careful contemplation as the course of action being proposed would render the child no more dangerous than any other human. As more and more members of the council began to look favorably on this idea, the leader of the faction which desired the child's termination felt her position weakening and so strove to do something to reverse things in her favor.

"What you are proposing would only place a ticking time bomb in the battlefield that could go off at any time." Mrs. Grumpy Imp stated, trying to drag the council back into rational thought rather than pipe dreams, "If the seal should break and the animal's true nature were to resurface, what then? He could compromise our plan before we could do anything to stop him."

"Now you're just being paranoid." Mr. Elderly Wiseman said to his adversary in this discussion, "You know as well as I do that nothing short of a pure blooded demon of high power could even damage the seals we are capable of creating. To destroy it outright and as quickly as you suggest would take a demon lord of old and the chances of one being encountering one of those on Earth is virtually non-existent."

This caused the whole room, with the exception of the firm supporters of the termination plan, to speak amongst each other with most agreeing that the chances of the seal being broken were slim at best. The Old Ones, the only true pure demons, had been driven from Earth eons ago and while they did occasionally send their lieutenants or assassins those that could be considered a threat were already neutralized. The Judge had been six separate pieces with each piece being taken to a different corner of the globe and hidden as well as guarded by the best. Acathla was still dormant with the holy sword rendering him dormant and given that he was buried deep beneath the earth in California the chances of him being reawakened were low indeed. All other demons of similar caliber were likewise either contained or rendered incapable of affecting the world around them on anything other than a close proximity basis. So long as measures were taken so that the boy in the craft did not come to the attention of their evil counterparts it was entirely conceivable that the child could live out his entire life as nothing more than a human.

Mrs. Grumpy Imp fumed internally as she saw virtually all support outside her hardcore supporters side with Mr. Elderly Wiseman. Much as she hated to admit it, and would thrash the first person to rub it in her face, she had walked right into that one. She had been so impatient to have her course of action approved that she had not remembered several relevant pieces of information and thus her point had been used against her. She knew now there was little chance of her wishes becoming a reality but at the very least she could try to stack the deck in her favor.

"Very well, your point is well made." Mrs. Grumpy Imp said with a bad taste in her mouth, "However, I move that I be allowed to choose the foundation for the boy's life. You would likely make it too ideal and that could bring him to the attention of our enemies just as easily as pointing them in proximity of a demon lord on Earth."

This had the effect she had hoped for, as many were forced to concede that Mr. Elderly Wiseman did have a tendency to operate with too light a touch in some cases and in others play favorites with a chosen few mortals. While not a certainty, the forces of evil would look suspiciously upon a new piece being added to the game board especially if it showed signs of being pampered by them at all. Still, no one was entirely enthusiastic about the idea of letting Mrs. Grumpy Imp set up the boy's new life, given how moments ago he had been pushing for the child's execution. Mrs. Grumpy Imp sensed this and decided that while it would make it more difficult to do away with the monster it was her only chance to get the ball rolling.

"To further assure those who are reluctant to allow me to make the necessary preparations I make this promise in front of you all." Mrs. Grumpy Imp declared knowing full well what a promise meant here in this room, "I promise that once I have set the boy in his new life, a life of average variety and interest, I shall take no further action against him whatsoever."

This shocked quite a few since they had not expected her to make such a solid and binding promise given her earlier position. Still, amongst the majority present, they appeared reassured by this and she knew that they would choose to grant his request. Mr. Elderly Wiseman was not pleased by the support Mrs. Grumpy Imp was getting but knew that he had no justifiable reason to block him with beyond his personal dislike of the man.

Thus it was decided that the Saiyan child's heritage would be sealed up tightly within him, his appearance reshaped to match the human norm, and then handed over to Mrs. Grumpy Imp to be placed in a human home down on planet Earth. If all went as discussed the boy, one of only a handful of his kind still alive, would live a full life as an ordinary human and die without ever knowing the hand they had played in choosing his fate for him.

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_**Elsewhere, Later**_

"Finally! I thought he'd never stop looking over my shoulder." Grumbled Mrs. Grumpy Imp as she felt the watchful gaze of Mr. Elderly Wiseman disappear.

It had taken only a short while for the council as a whole to seal the animal's true nature away and make the chosen alterations. However, once the beast had been placed in her care, her opponent in the discussion had kept watch over her both in the form of 'friendly visits' and in the more subtle forms of arcane eavesdropping available. No doubt the old fool still didn't believe that she would refrain from doing something underhanded, and so had watched her carefully for quite awhile. Now though, the geezer was apparently satisfied that she did indeed intend to follow the ruling of the council and as such lifted all surveillance on her.

_Exactly what I have been waiting for him to do all along._ Mrs. Grumpy Imp thought as she began to sift through the list of childless human families on Earth that met the criteria she was looking for.

She had to be careful in her moves or else the other members of the council might start wondering if she was trying to find a loophole in the promise she had made. Which she was of course but she couldn't let anyone else know that was for damn sure. Breaking a promise made in front of the entire council that was the Powers That Be carried a heavy penalty that only got worse if the violation gave the other side an advantage. This meant that while she wanted the boy dead, she had to be careful not to let her intentions become known.

First was which part of the planet to deposit the animal. There were some areas that were eliminated right off because difference in skin color since it would be just a little odd to drop a Caucasian boy in the middle of an Asian dominant region. While that narrowed the choices down to places like Europe or North America she still had to trim things down a bit more. Impoverished countries or areas with a high mortality rate were then eliminated since leaving the monster there might be seen as an attempt at execution. That pretty much steered him towards North America as both the United States and Canada were fairly well off both economically and society-wise. Given the choice though, she felt that the United States was a better choice for her as it had enough problems both internal and external that the whelp could easily become a casualty with nothing to implicate her in the creature's demise.

With the location chosen, the family to drop the animal in was made significantly easier. She still had to make sure that the one she chose would on the surface seem like an acceptable choice in that the parents were decent enough and could support an extra mouth with no problems at all. However, she herself would look for oddities in the files of the prospective parents that hinted at the potential to go straight into the gutter if they experienced a period of 'bad luck'. There were a few possibilities as there was no shortage of dysfunctions and inherited problems present in a few of the candidates. The problems were minor of course and the optimist would believe that such difficulties were well in hand as well as destined to disappear eventually. It was when she was comparing one file with another with another that she came upon exactly what she was looking for in the humans that would raise the beast.

Jessica and Anthony Harris.

A newlywed couple in Utah with the husband being a construction worker and the wife a real estate agent with promising careers ahead of them. The couple had been trying for the past three years to have a child but without any success due to complications that could only be cured through expensive procedures. They were now considering adoption and would be visiting their local foster child organization later in the week to see if there were any appropriate candidates to take into their newly formed family. If anyone else among the council looked at the file they would think she made a great choice and had a kind heart for giving a pair of newlyweds the child they so desperately wanted. In truth though, she chose them because the husband had all the earmarks of an abusive alcoholic in the making and only needed a push in the right direction to get him started. That bad behavior would filter down to the wife who exhibited signs of deferring to her husband on the serious decisions and had a timid nature within that would only grow as the husband declined. Placed within such a family it would only be a matter of time before the animal would either be beaten to death by his adoptive parents or fall victim to their drunken habits and die in a car crash.

_Almost, but I think I'll stack the deck a little more in my favor._ Mrs. Grumpy Imp thought as she used his trans-sphere to set up a series of actions to be enacted at a specific period in the future.

With her power and the trans-sphere, she put in place a pseudo job offer for Anthony Harris that would be sent his way in about three years Earth time, detailing an impressive position at a small town construction company. With the perks, wages and benefits detailed in the offer, the man would have to be insane not to take it immediately and move his family to their new home in that town. Of course, what Tony Harris wouldn't know was that the town was called Sunnydale, in the state of California, and while it may look like a quaint small time town it was actually something much more. The Spanish called it 'Boca del Inferno' and it was the sight of the largest and most potent of hellmouths on the planet; drawing all manner of demons and phenomenon to it.

While it was true that it might seem suspicious to have the family she placed the monster in move to such a place she believed the three year delay would be enough to make it look merely odd. Once the Harris' moved there, of course she'd let the 'job' linger for a year or so before having the business go bankrupt. One year would be plenty of time for the Harris' to use up whatever money they had thanks to the costs of settling into a new town, making it impossible for them to leave. That should be more than enough to drive Tony Harris to drinking and Jessica to follow soon afterwards. In such a hostile environment, both at home and atop the hellmouth itself, the monkey's death was almost a certainty.

_While I know that the other members of the council would disapprove of my methods I only have the best interests of our cause at heart._ Mrs. Grumpy Imp thought as she finished the last of the preparations to get the Harris' to Sunnydale. _The potential destruction this one Saiyan child could cause would be devastating and even worse should the forces of The First Evil get him to side with them. For the sake of all that is good, this Saiyan cannot be allowed to live!_

With that thought, the dye was cast and so one Armec, son of Velva, one of the few surviving members of a nearly extinct race, became Alexander LaVelle Harris, the only son of Jessica and Tony Harris. However, this scheme by Mrs. Grumpy Imp was in the years to come going to be a prime example to all who heard of it that even The Powers That Be aren't all powerful or incapable of screwing up somehow.

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_**Seventeen Years Later, Sunnydale, California**_

_**Approaching the South Entrance to The Sunnydale Mall**_

_It's apocalypse time once again in Sunnydale and who is it that has to save the day?_ Xander thought as he and Oz carried the crate containing the rocket launcher towards the mall, _Only five high school students and one tweed clad librarian. If this is the best those idiots the PTBs can come up with to save the world I'm surprised Earth isn't demon central by now._

It had been worse than usual for the Scooby gang this time around and in particular their de facto leader Buffy Anne Summers. It had started around the blonde Slayer's Birthday and if he remembered correctly, that was quite a bit earlier than usual since last time it had been good enough to wait until closer to the end of the school year. The gang had been all ready to give Buffy the best surprise birthday party ever, but thanks to an unwanted and unexpected present from Spike and Drusilla, the party was called off. Just about everyone had been a bit puzzled when they had opened the box that the fang faces were trying to make off with to find an arm.

Angel had been the one to tell them what it was they were looking at as well as how bad things could get for everyone on the planet. Apparently, the arm was a part of a larger demon called 'The Judge' and once the 'assembly required' thing was met, the big guy would have the ability to flambé the human race. With world endage imminent, the gang had sprung into action, staking out all the likely places where pieces of the demon could be coming into town from. When he had returned from the bus stop empty handed, he had been a little hopeful that it might have been a false alarm. Maybe Spike just wanted to mount the arm of The Judge over the fireplace or something. After all, you got to have something to show off to all the newbie vamps when they come for visits.

Sadly, that was when the shit really hit the fan.

_I knew I should have staked Deadboy when I had the chance!_ Xander thought as passed through the doors to the mall and headed to the elevators, _At least now I should be able to do it without Buffy throwing too much of a fuss._

It had been as big a shock for the Summers girl as it had been for the rest of them when they learned the truth about Angel's condition that had caused him to revert to Angelus. At first, there had been confusion and fear since it would mean big trouble for everyone if one of their teammates had jumped over the wall into the enemy camp. However, when Giles had noticed a flaw in Ms. Calendar's behavior, the truth had come out and **man** it wasn't pretty.

Apparently a little over century ago, Angelus, one member of the Scourge of Europe, had made a bad choice in breakfasts and had drained one Very Important Gypsy. This had resulted in the young woman's family placing a curse on Angelus, putting his human soul back in the driver's seat while tossing the demon into the back seat. This was intended to cause the newly created vampire with a soul as much pain as possible as he was forced to relive everything the vampire demon spirit did while in control of his body. Pretty stupid from his point of view since the human soul and the vampire spirit were two separate entities. It would be like blaming a brother for what the sister did, but he would be damned before he said that out loud since it would sound like he was on Deadboy's side. In any case, the ultimate act of stupidity- the prime proof that the gypsies were idiots- was that there was a loophole in the curse. If Overbite felt one moment of True Happiness, one moment when he was no longer angsty or brooding, then his human soul would go buh-bye and Angelus would be back.

_Just how stupid can you get? If they wanted him to suffer forever then they should of made sure it was impossible for the curse to be removed._ Xander thought as news of how the curse was broken surfaced, _Then again getting pelvic with a **corpse** when there's a big time demon on the loose is pretty stupid too._

He'd have been lying if he said that he hadn't been bothered by the idea that Buffy and Deadboy had done the horizontal mambo. Despite the whole bitch phase she had gone through coming back from summer vacation, he had still held onto some hope that eventually she'd clue in that a warm, live body was better than a cold dead one. However it was an unofficial rule for guys everywhere that when the girl your after shags the guy she's seeing then the relationship is getting serious and your only chance at snagging her would be a few months after they break up. In any case, while he doubted he'd be seeing Buffy and Angelus at the movies anytime soon, this wasn't the break up he'd been hoping for at all. No, he had been hoping for something more along the lines of Lord Forehead saying something stupid enough to get Buffy pissed or maybe the blonde Slayer finally noticing the stud that is the Xan-man. Instead, Buffy has to find out in the most painful way he could think of that she had literally thrust the soul right out of her perceived soul mate and turned him into a vicious monster. That was going to require many a container of ice cream and at least ten chick flicks for her to get back to her old self, no doubt about it.

_That and the satisfaction that she slammed the brakes on the latest scheme of the forces of badness of course._ Xander thought as the elevator dinged and the doors opened to reveal the food court/theatre, _Hopefully making The Judge go boom will make her feel better. I know seeing things go boom improves my mood. In fact, if someday I could make the school go boom I know I'd have a happy._

Heading towards where they figured Angelus and The Judge would be entering the room from Buffy said "Everybody keep back. Damage control only. Take out any lesser vamps if you can. I'll handle the Smurf."

As they cleared the concession stands it was clear that the gang had arrived just in the nick of time as they watched golden bolts of energy shoot out from The Judge's hands, connecting various people together like demonic tic-tack-toe. Xander didn't need Giles' brains to figure out that if they didn't hurry all the people connected by the energy would be ash in a couple of seconds. Buffy fortunately was ahead of them on this so while she loaded a crossbow to get The Judge's attention, he and Oz placed the crate they had been carrying on top of the concession stand Buffy had just leapt onto. Taking the minimum amount of time necessary to aim, the blonde Slayer sent an arrow flying across the room to strike The Judge right in the heart. While this did no harm to the demon, it did distract it enough to shut down whatever it was trying to do with the theatre patrons.

"Who dares?" asked The Judge arrogantly as though he considered it an insult that any lesser being would dare to attack him.

Opening the crate, since he knew Buffy would be holding a hand out for their trump card soon Xander hoped that his flash of insight proved accurate.

"Think I got his attention." Buffy stated in a casual matter-of-fact way that showed she wasn't intimidated in the least.

"You're a fool." The Judge said as he snapped the arrow in his chest in half, "No weapon forged can stop me."

"That was then." Buffy said as she lowered her crossbow for Willow to take.

Knowing that this was his cue, Xander lifted the anti-tank rocket launcher out of its crate, but before he could pass it to Buffy, the Judge did something unexpected. When he had originally planned this he had presumed that The Judge would do what all super baddies did in situations like this. Pose arrogantly in front of the heroes and gloat about how unbeatable they were right up until they got their ass handed to them. They had all agreed that The Judge would be either too stupid, ignorant or arrogant to do anything other than stand there and get blown into a million pieces. So when The Judge's arm shot out and fired a bolt of golden energy right at him he was so surprised that it was a miracle he was able to toss the rocket launcher at Buffy before being struck in the chest.

As he was thrown backwards by the blast, he was oddly not in a lot of pain, but rather his senses became blurred and distorted. His sense of touch became numbed, his sense of hearing acted like he was underwater, his eyes could only give him sporadic blurred images and his sense of smell could only detect burning fabric.

Whether because of some unexpected good luck or a solid dose of Harris bad luck, his flight through the air was halted rather violently as he slammed into something pretty unyielding. The sudden stop also had the half good and half bad effect of rebooting some of his senses such as sight as well as hearing. While his body was still too numb to allow him to get back to his feet or even do more than angle his head towards the action, he was able to see the spectacular sight of The Judge going boom from the rocket launcher. Seeing him go down probably caused Buffy to skip the witty banter portion of the fighting and go straight to the big finish. He tried to smile when he spotted Angelus looking severely pissed at his plans literally blowing up in his face and Drusilla looked like she was having a panic attack. He wasn't sure what the point would be considering she was completely nuts, but he then figured it would be a waste of time trying to understand the psycho vamp.

Much to his annoyance though, as he would have liked to see how things turned out, it was then that his body decided that it was time to take a nap. Apparently it had decided to come together just long enough to let him know that the crisis was over with before shifting all its resources into healing itself. As the world went dark and he went off to dreamland he hoped that when he came too that the good news of the dusting of Angelus, Spike and Drusilla would be waiting for him.

With that thought and the sound of his heartbeat echoing in his ears unconsciousness settled in and coherent thought was no more.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**The Realm of the Powers That Be, Council Chambers**_

_**Emergency Session**_

"The situation has become dire my comrades." Mrs. Grumpy Imp stated as though she was the official leader of the council, "The seal we placed on the Saiyan child, the one that held his power and true nature in check, has been seriously destabilized due to a direct attack unleashed by The Judge. It is only a matter of time before it shatters and the one known on Earth as Xander Harris gains full access to his heritage. We **must** act **now**!"

The news had the entire room in a flurry of excitement and concern as a problem they had thought long dealt with had chosen to reappear. What was worse was that it had chosen to reappear in one of the worst places possible, the Sunnydale hellmouth. Not only was it the home of their current Chosen One, Buffy Summers, but it was also the lynchpin for all demonic, supernatural and paranormal activity on the west coast of America. When you took all that into account and tried to imagine what might happen if one of the ki blasts they had discovered the Saiyan child would one day be capable of firing hitting the hellmouth they were worried.

While brute strength or great power wasn't the easiest way to open the hellmouth, given that the pure blooded demons had been trying to get through from their side for eons, none knew what effect massive amounts of ki energy would have from this side of the hellmouth.

"Granted, the situation is dangerous, but I do not believe that sanction level action is required just yet." Mr. Elderly Wiseman stated as he tried to calm the fears of the council members, "While it is true that the blast from The Judge has destabilized the seal, it is not critical damage or else young Mr. Harris would already be showing signs of his heritage. Given the parameters of the seal, it is entirely possible that it will manage to repair itself so long as young Alexander is not exposed to any more high level demonic energy."

While this did decrease the decibel level of the council members, it had only marginal success with alleviating their worry about the potential unsealing of a seventeen year old Saiyan's natual abilities. It was true that the specifications and design of the seal they had used did have automatic repair and regeneration functions that in time could repair the damage done by The Judge. However given that the boy was on the hellmouth, a veritable hot zone of demonic activity, the odds that the young man would be able to avoid energies that would impede the seal's recovery were not good.

"You are being naïve, elder. The boy is living atop the largest and most active hellmouth on Earth, where world ending events are beginning to happen on an annual basis." Mrs. Grumpy Imp stated with contempt for her opponent in this discussion, "With the situation there only getting worse it is almost a certainty that the boy will be unsealed and his Saiyan heritage will assert itself completely. He must be dealt with **NOW**!"

Mrs. Grumpy Imp had made a good point that was impossible to deny. Sunnydale, California, U.S.A was becoming a point of convergence in the battle of Good versus Evil. It was rumored that The First Evil itself was beginning to monitor the situation atop the Hellmouth and that could not be considered a good thing by anyone. While no one could predict when the embodiment of evil would make its move, preparations were already being made to counter anything it might do. All in all it did seem risky to delay definitive action regarding the hidden Saiyan given the potential consequences of inaction.

"True, but keep in mind that the boy has lived on the hellmouth almost his entire life without encountering the supernatural or demonic. It is only recently with his decision to aide our Chosen One that he has decided to confront the forces of evil directly." Mr. Elderly Wiseman said remaining perfectly calm in light of his opponent's ranting, "While this may seem to only increase the likelihood that the seal will be exposed to further harmful energies it is not quite so. Young Alexander is considered the most normal and the most unable to defend himself from the demonic threats present in Sunnydale. As the demons grow stronger his friends will be pressured into trying to keep him on the fringes of the battles instead of the center of them. This should adequately prevent him from being exposed to any more high level demonic energy and thus give the seal time to return to full strength."

Mr. Elderly Wiseman's point was equally good as the number of times Alexnader Harris had encountered a demon or an element of the supernatural prior to Buffy Summers' arrival was virtually non-existent. Whether that was because he never before had any real reason to frequent places like 'The Bronze' where demons commonly hunted, or because his fallen parents had kept him busy at home no one knew. His decision to aide Ms. Summers in her struggle did pose a threat to the seal but if the Slayer did react to the increasing threats as Mr. Elderly Wiseman predicted Alex's interaction with them should be reduced to almost nothing.

"Doubtful. The boy is notoriously stubborn as well as determined to be a part of the Slayer's nightlife. Any efforts by Ms. Summers to keep him away from her destiny would only result in him choosing to fight independent of the main 'Scooby' group." Mrs. Grumpy Imp said with a growl of frustration, "However, since it has become clear that you will not back down from your position I suggest a compromise. For the next six months this council will restrict itself solely to observing Alexander Harris, to watch for signs that his heritage is manifesting itself. If one of the more dominant traits surface such as an unchanging hairstyle or at worst the tail appears, it will prove that the seal can no longer keep his Saiyan nature in check and we **will** terminate him. If however he remains unchanged during the next six months physically and any hints of mental changes fade quickly, it will prove the seal is successfully repairing itself and the boy will live. Are you agreeable to this elder?"

The entire room waited eagerly for the leader of the opposition's response as it would either force further discussion or settle the matter at least for another six months. For the most part, the proposal seemed perfectly rational and quite fair to the Saiyan in human clothing. In the end though Mr. Elderly Wiseman had no real choice in the matter since to refuse such a logical and equitable arrangement would make him seem unreasonable. Thus it was decided that for the next six months on the planet Earth young Xander Harris would be watched by the entirety of the council of The Powers That Be so that his fate could be decided.

No pressure right?


	2. A Time of Changes

_**4 Months Later, Sunnydale General Hospital, Outside the Emergency Room, Evening**_

To say that Xander was not a happy camper would be a gross understatement. In fact, if he could step outside of his body and look at it from a distance, he'd have to say that he was only a few short steps away from punching the nearest person.

Repeatedly.

Truthfully he had been growing steadily less and less happy with how things had been going ever since the mess with The Judge. Mostly because time and again Buffy 'the Slayer' Summers had refused to step up and do her duty by staking that son of a bitch Angelus. She **knew** that a vampire wasn't the same person they were before being turned! She heard with her own **ears** how he had talked to her in the hallways and she was **still** unable to turn that mothafucker into dust buster food. While he had been a little more optimistic about her ability to stake Deadboy after Ms. Calendar was killed it shouldn't have taken the death of a friend and G-Man's girlfriend to do it. It was pissing him off that the blonde girl that had been his own personal superhero since she showed up in Sunnydale was turning out to be a spineless wimp who let her heart get in the way too much.

It was this latest snafu though that really got him pissed at the bottle blonde Slayer. Yesterday had started out well enough in that he believed his 'hero' had finally accepted that her corpse of a boyfriend was gone and that she had a job to do. That had gone up in a puff of smoke when Buffy and Willow had come into the library waving a computer disk that had belonged to the late Jenny Calendar. According to his best friend since pre-school it contained the original gypsy curse that had turned the monster Angelus into angsty soulboy Angel. After getting over the initial shock of Jenny doing something that she had initially thought couldn't be done everyone but him had been debating whether or not the curse could be performed. He had fumed for three minutes before he had had heard enough and told them exactly where he stood on the matter. He told them that they were idiots for even thinking about risking the entire planet on the Hail Mary chance of getting Buffy's bed buddy back. He had at that point believed that Giles would back him up and mirror his statement that one person (so to speak) was not worth putting the entire world at risk. Giles' statement that because it appeared to be Jenny's last wish that he'd be willing to go along with it shocked the founding male Scooby before the feeling fed his anger making it stronger.

_Why is it when I'm the voice of reason the only person I can count on for support is Cordy?_ He thought as he paced up and down the hallway.

Indeed the only two sane people in the entire library at that time had been him, the normal guy, and Ms. High society Cordelia Chase. He yelled at the G-Man, trying to convince him that what they were considering was nuts, knowing that if he got the Watcher to back him up he'd have one a major victory in opposing Buffy's plan. Unfortunately, being reminded of Ms. Calendar's death had apparently knocked his common sense offline because he had still supported trying to re-curse Angelus. The argument had gone on for a little while longer but in the end all that happened was that he had made his position clear and they had made theirs clear. Later on Kendra, the Jamaican Slayer, had shown up back in town and when apprized of the situation had sided with him on what should be done to Angelus but she might as well have been silent for all the good it did.

Then the main event had happened.

A vamp had snuck into the school and to the classroom where he, Willow and Buffy were listening to the teacher. It had spouted off some miniony nonsense before delivering a challenge from Overbite to Buffy threatening to kill more people if she didn't show. Everyone said it was a trap and even Buffy indicated that she knew it might be one but still she waltzed right into it like a good little moron. He might not have been blind to the possibility that Lord Forehead might really have people ready to kill if the Slayer didn't show up but those were strangers and despite her bouts of temporary insanity he still considered the Summers girl a friend. Being pretty much on his own and not being the gang's favorite person at the moment because of his opposing the curse strategy he had kept his mouth shut. Oh he wanted to yell at Buffy for being so stupid as to walk into an obvious trap. He wanted to say that it was more important to stay and provide security for the stupid curse then to go and rescue people that **might** be at risk. However he knew they'd ignore him or just treat him like he didn't have the smarts or the experience to make those sorts of decisions so silence was all he had to contribute.

Presently he was mentally kicking the crap out of himself and telling his 'good old Xander' personae that he should have torched all the materials related to the curse when he had had the chance.

Turns out he had been right about the trap but it hadn't been for Buffy. No the entire set up had been to get the blonde Slayer as far away from the library as possible so Angelus' minions could raid the place and kidnap Giles. All of them had fought as hard as they could, with him taking out two much to his surprise and pleasure, but in the end it was all about the numbers. The Scoobies only had one Slayer present and despite the fact that the rest of them had experience dealing with the undead they were not much better than your average civilians. He had been the second last one to go down and had woken up in the hospital an hour later with a cast around his right hand all the way to the elbow. It was only then that he had found out from the idiot police that Kendra had been killed. That had put him in such a fury that even Detective Stein, who had always done his best to arrest the Scoobies somehow, had the sense to leave him alone.

_Which brings me to where I am now!_ Xander thought with a growl as the desire to inflict pain returned, _Waiting for that idiot doctor to come back with those secondary test results on Willow!_

Looking in the direction that the doc had gone he tried and almost demanded that the balding man appear but instead he saw someone that was both a person he had been concerned about while at the same time mad as hell at. Wearing a long dark coat and wool cap to cover up her golden hair as much as possible was Buffy Summers who in his opinion was doing a terrible job of trying to remain inconspicuous. Deciding he had to stop her before one of the hospital staff or worse one of the loitering cops spotted her he casually strolled down the hall and touched her on the shoulder. She spun around in surprise and almost looked ready to bolt before she recognised him embraced him in a big hug.

"Xander! Ohhh... " she said before breaking the hug and stepping back, "I was so worried, I didn't know if you were okay. The cops were..."

Deciding to try and 'play nice' in the hopes of not attracting attention he said "Yeah, I heard they chased you out of the school."

He had genuinely been trying to keep his voice quiet and neutral but by the look on Buffy's face he could tell there had been at least some anger in his words nevertheless.

"Well, what about the others?" Buffy asked apparently willing to shelve her questions about his hostile attitude until later.

Before he could respond though he spotted two cops heading right in their direction and knew that the Slayer'd be spotted if he didn't think of something quick. Grabbing her he forced her into a hug and made sure she stayed there until well after the so-called law enforcement officers had passed them and turned a corner.

"Okay. That was about equal parts protecting me and copping a feel, right?" Buffy asked in an obvious attempt to mimic his old habit of trying to lighten then mood when things got too tense.

"I'm afraid this isn't the time to be making jokes Buffy." Xander said in a totally serious tone as he decided it was time to tell the Slayer what Willow's condition was at the moment.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**The Street Leading to the Crawford Mansion, Close to Sunrise**_

"Why am I letting Willow try this again?" Xander asked himself as he jogged towards the Crawford Mansion in the hope of intercepting Buffy to tell her the news.

It had been a terrible scene earlier in the hospital when he had shown Buffy Willow, unconscious in the hospital bed and for all intents and purposes in a coma. It had been in the midst of worrying over the redhead's condition that they realized that two people who should have been there were not. Oz wasn't present and Giles, who had been at the library along with everyone else, was nowhere to be found. Thus the two most able bodied of the group split up with him going to get Oz so the stoic werewolf could be at his girlfriend's side and Buffy to find her Watcher. A phone call and a quick concise briefing and the musician said he'd be there as fast as he could. With that done he had gone back to Willow's room to keep her company until Oz got there. Cordelia was there too but she was pretty much regulated to a gopher for the most part getting coffee for the two of them as well as snacks. Fortunately lady luck must have taken pity on them because right as Oz walked through the door to Willow's room the redhead began to wake up. She was still a little woozy but otherwise seemed to have all her marbles and was coherent enough as far as he could tell.

They got word about an hour after that from Buffy. Giles had been grabbed by Deadboy's minions and taken to the Crawford mansion. The theory they had was that Overbite was having trouble waking Acathla and had decided to invite G-Man over for some pain and torture. Buffy said she was going to hit the mansion just before sunrise and put an end to things once and for all. Okay maybe not in those words but that was the general message that was being sent. That had dispelled a great amount of his anger as he was pleased that the Slayer was finally on the same page as him with regards to Lord Forehead. Of course, this must have displeased some deity because as soon as the phone was hung up Willow said she wanted to try to perform the curse again. Naturally he did his best to stop that idea before it even got off the ground because a) Willow was in no condition to be doing any serious mojo and b) he didn't want Buffy to find out since it would cause her resolve to slay Angelus to weaken. After all she had been all gung-ho about killing Angelus before and then they found that damn disk of Ms. Calendar's causing the Slayer to go all 'Angel oh Angel' all over again.

_Damn Willow and her resolve face!_ He thought as he thought he spotted Buffy a little further up the road.

He had argued his case to the gang and had even let his anger do the talking for a short period hoping to shock them out of whatever naïve optimistic fantasy world they thought they were in. This wasn't a TV show! Things were not universally arranged so that the good guys would always win in the end no matter how bleak things looked! Besides even if they got the curse to work and Angel came back AND they did this before Angelus woke up Acathla, the vamp would still be a ticking time bomb. With such a stupid stipulation, 'one moment of true happiness', it was almost a certainty that the curse would be broken again sooner or later especially if Overbite stayed in Sunnydale. Unfortunately with Cordy going bye-bye in the head and Oz siding firmly with his girlfriend he had been outvoted yet again so all he could do was go along and head for the mansion to inform the Slayer about what Willow was trying. He knew he could have just walked out and refused to have anything to do with the entire insane scheme but that would only cause him problems down the line. So here he was jogging up the street to catch up with Buffy to tell her the one thing that might destroy her resolve to dust Angelus because of the slim chance Willow might be able to get Angel back.

"Buffy!" he yelled in an attempt to get her attention so she'd stop and let him catch up.

She turned around and looked quite surprised to see him there but also a little upset that he hadn't stayed away like she had told him to do on the phone. Deciding that getting into shouting match with her would only make things more difficult and possibly alert the vamps due to their demonic senses he decided to act more friendly.

"Cavalry's here. Cavalry's a frightened guy with an attitude" he said putting on his best 'brave' face, "but it's here."

He hated having to play the role of the 'goofy sidekick' like he had for the better part of the last two years as it had only caused the gang to look at him like a burden or something. Oh they didn't come right out and say it but he could easily imagine what they'd think when they looked at him. 'We have to keep Xander safe' they'd think, 'he cannot even take on a school bully much less a vamp' they'd think, before sugar coating such thoughts to make themselves feel better as well as justified. He had tolerated it for a while because he didn't want to risk losing them as friends by calling them on their condescending way of thinking. However, since Buffy thrust the soul out of Deadboy, in the middle of a crisis considering who The Judge was, he was beginning to question whether his friends were really his friends. Friends would have noticed his short comings in fighting demons and done something about it rather than just ignore his needs or assumed he'd do something about it himself. After all that was how they probably thought it worked, right: If a person wants help they'll ask for it. They probably hadn't even considered that some people didn't know they had the option of asking for help or perhaps were simply too shy/embarrassed to ask for help. In any case he shoved those thoughts aside to be addressed later once Deadboy was dust and Acathla was in la-la land once more.

"You're not here to fight. You get Giles out, and you run like hell, understood? I can't protect you." Buffy said as she resumed walking towards the mansion which he took as a 'you can come' statement, "I'm gonna be too busy killing."

While he didn't like her 'my word is law' tone of voice, he agreed with the overall battle plan. As much as he would like to be there in the thick of things, fighting with her he knew he wouldn't be able to do much good with the cast on his arm. Hell! Even without the cast he was barely able to take on more than one vamp at a time and he somehow doubted those cowards would fight fair. Also it would be one less thing to distract Buffy during her fight with Angelus if she knew for certain that Giles would be taken care of.

_Speaking of distractions I think it's time to get rid of a big one right now._ He thought as he said, "Willow told me to tell you to kick Angelus' butt."

It was a spur of the moment decision. Right up until he had started talking to her it had been his intention to tell Buffy about Willow's decision to re-attempt the curse to bring back Angel. However when he had seen the determination in the Slayer's eyes and the complete absence of any hesitation when it came to what she'd do to Angelus he'd decided to go with his original opinion of kill rather than curse Angelus. Even if one looked past his obvious and well-known hatred of vampires, Deadboy included, it came down to a simple question of numbers. One vampire (soul or no soul) versus the lives of over six billion people (half of which were infinitely more worthy of being saved than Overbite) and very little time to make the required choice before passing the point of no return. He knew from Buffy's point of view the life (figuratively speaking of course) of her 'soul mate' was every bit as valuable as the six billion humans on Earth. From his point of view, six billion innocents were vastly more important than one vampire and even if Buffy liked the vamp, there were plenty of other males on the planet for her to date. So in the end, even if the gang wound up hating him for lying he could live with it because he did the right thing and he knew sooner or later they'd realize it as well.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**Crawford Mansion, A Little After Sunrise **_

_Okay! This is bad!_ Buffy thought as she saw Angelus pull the holy sword thing from Alfalfa's chest.

Not bothering to bemoan the bad situation further, she darts over to where her own sword is and brings it up into a guard position. She had seriously been hoping that she'd be able to dust the minions and deal with Ange…ANGELUS before he could pull the sword but it looked like the stupid PTBs were determined to give her a hard time. At least they hadn't made things overly difficult for Xander and Giles when it came to getting out of here. With them gone she wouldn't have to worry about whether or not they had run into trouble of the fangy kind. Now she could focus entirely on this fight and that is what she'd need to do if she expected to win. It was hard enough to keep her love for Angel and her desire to get him back at bay so she could do what needed to be done. If the worry over whether or not Xander and Giles had gotten away had been added to that she doubted she'd be able to focus very much at all.

"You almost made it, Buff." Angelus said with mock praise as he admired the sword in his hand before looking directly at her.

"It's not over yet." Buffy declared defiantly as she refused to believe that this was the end and that there was nothing more she could do but die.

"My boy Acathla here is about to wake up. You're going to Hell." Angelus said with a voice full of confidence and certainty as used the sword as a pointer in her direction.

"Save me a seat." Buffy said and with that the fight was with her starting things off with a thrust towards her enemy.

Angelus easily parried and swung around before delivering a thrust of his own, but she had expected that and thus parried it. Again and again their blades clashed and before she had to duck a wide arcing swing from him before they again began trading thrusts and slashes. Angelus tried another arcing swing from above, but it was easy to duck and sidestep out of the way. With the way the fight was going, she could tell that they were almost evenly matched in terms of skill with neither likely to fall for any amateur tricks. Unfortunately, she knows that the vampire in front of her has the advantage as she is distracted by the past a little bit while he has nothing but her on his mind.

Angelus tried a swing from above for a third time, and just like the previous two times she ducks it and escapes to the side. Jumping up on a low table and she takes a swing at him again hoping what Giles said about the high ground being a good thing turned out to be true. Angelus parried though and then swung at her legs in an attempt to literally chop them out from under her. A quick leap up and over his blade gets her clear and causing her to land on the floor. He tried for her legs again, but she blocked his attempt with her blade. Again they trade several attacks before Angelus tried a wide swing once more and this time manages a superficial cut on the arm. Nothing serious, she knew, and so she ignored it in favour of staying focused on her enemy and her overall goal.

He tried to take advantage of the damage and came at her with his sword held high, with the full intention of swinging from above, but she dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way, the sound of a clay bowl smashing behind her being the only result of his attack. She kicked his legs out from under him and scrambled back up to her feet in order to prepare for the next assault. Angelus unfortunately wasn't about to give her the chance as he turned to face her while still on his knees and swung three times in rapid succession forcing her to parry each one. The fourth time he swung she knocked his sword into the table after her parry and pinned it there. She was about to take advantage of his vulnerability but he backhanded her in the face and for a moment she was in a daze. She could hear him as he pulled the sword from the table and, like clockwork, he swung blade at her hard. Blocking the attack with her own sword she kicked him in the stomach forcing him to double over. Jumping over him into the clear she brought her sword up again ready as she could be for the next attack from the demon with her lover's face. Angelus thrust, and she parries, then he kicked the arm her sword was in, causing her to stumble back a step.

_I don't have time for this!_ She thought as her Slayer senses could easily feel Alfalfa waking up, _I need to finish this fight but how?_

She was going all out with her Slayer abilities to try and put an end to the fight, but it was quickly becoming apparent that Angelus was just as fast and as strong as she was if not a little bit more. The only reason she seemed to be able to keep up was because he was a cocky son of a bitch who liked to play with his prey before going in for the kill. She knew she had to somehow turn his arrogance to her advantage, but just as she was about to begin forming a plan things took a turn for the worse. All of sudden it was no longer an even match as she suddenly found her attacks having less and less of an effect on Angelus' blade while at the same time he seemed to be speeding up significantly. Could he have been playing with her more than she had realized? No! She would have been able to tell if he was holding back that much! Nevertheless she was quickly being backed into a corner as the fight spilled out of the mansion and into some kind of garden or atrium.

_I **won't** let him win!_ She thought fiercely as she tried to turn the tables on him.

However, her passionate vow had no affect on the battle and then quicker than she thought possible she was unarmed and had her back to a cement wall enclosing the garden. He had knocked her sword from her hand when it had gotten temporarily stuck in a pot and was now taking up a position to make sure she couldn't retrieve it without going through him. This was quite possibly the worst situation she could have gotten herself into, and given her experience as the Slayer, that was saying something. Her enemy now had the advantage of reach on her and as she had recently discovered was **very** good and **very** quick with his sword. If she could somehow knock the blade from his hand and force things into a hand-to-hand combat situation she might be able to get things going her way but she doubted he'd let that happen.

_Looks like this is it._ She thought as the number of possible ways out began to wink out as they fell under any serious scrutiny, _Three years as the Slayer and now is my time to check out and pass the torch to the next girl with the bad luck to be Chosen._

"Now that's everything, huh? No weapons... No friends... No hope." Angelus said revelling in his apparent victory, "Take all that away... and what's left?"

Closing her eyes, she waits for her death to come. The hope, determination and focus she had coming into this fight had dwindled to a small matchstick of light with the flame dangerously close to going out. What else could she do? She was unarmed, on her butt a strategically sucky position and thanks to his weapon, Angelus was just out of the range where she could have used her feet to attack. In short she was screwed and Angelus knew it that was probably why he was taking his time and drawing things out. She hoped that whatever end her friends came to it was a quick one, that they wouldn't suffer at the hands of the demons in whatever dimension the planet was about to get sucked into, but somehow she knew that Murphy would have a say in that.

_So you're just going to sit there and let all your friends down!_

_Huh! _She thought as the unknown voice echoed in her mind.

_Your friends are counting on you to save the day and you're just going to give up?_

_But what can I do? I have no sword and being on my butt is going to make it pretty easy for Angelus to introduce me to the pointy end of his sword._ She thought, deciding to go along with the discussion she figured she was having with herself.

_So? Just because the situation looks hopeless doesn't mean it is._ Said the unknown voice, _Try to understand Buffy that like all struggles it must first be won in the mind. Once that is done the rest is relatively easy._

_So basically you're saying its like mind over matter or something?_ She asked mentally not quite sure of what this strange voice was trying to tell her.

**SIGH!**

_Hey! Don't sigh to me whoever or whatever you are!_ Buffy yelled in her mind as she was beginning to get a little irritated at this mystery guest she had in her head, _You're the one talking like Mr. Fortune Cookie!_

_What I have been trying to tell you is that you're only defeated if you give up._ The voice said, apparently trying to repeat his message in laymen's terms, _So long as you refuse to yield then there is still a chance you can win._

_So basically you're saying the fat lady hasn't sung yet and I should get my ass in gear? _Buffy asked more sure of what her conversation partner was trying to get across.

_In American terms yes I believe so. _The voice replied deciding that that was the best he could hope for from Buffy, _Now go with the music Slayer and may you not know the silence until you're old and gray._

With those words time resumes and while it may have seemed like the discussion had taken a few minutes to the blonde Slayer it had actually been less than a second in duration. Opening her eyes with the fire of defiance restored to its brilliant glare she clapped her hands together stopping the blade wielded by the vampire Angelus a little over an inch before it would have pierced her skin. Looking at him straight in the eye she decided it was time to respond to the question he had posed just moments ago.

"Me." She replied and without waiting to see his reaction she used her Slayer strength to shove the sword backward hitting her enemy with the hilt causing the vampire to stumble backwards.

Hopping to her feet she lashes out with a sidekick to gain even more room with which to begin her definitive counterattack. Picking up her sword from where it had fallen she felt a surge of determination fill her and it was no longer an 'if' she defeated him but a 'when'. As quick as lightning, she lashes out with her sword and while at first it may seem like the battle would fall into the same stalemate it had been a minute or two prior an overhead slash of hers that brought Angelus down to one knee destroyed that idea. She was a force unto herself now and she would not stop for anything less than total, unequivocal, victory.

In less than a second she has sent him sprawling back into the mansion with him in a barely controlled retreat. Farther and farther, things continue to slide in her favour with it looking less and less likely that Angelus will survive the duel. A vicious front kick sends him flying into the still stone- but awakening Alfalfa- before falling to his knees in front of her. It is time for the final blow. Gripping her sword with both hands she brings it back in preparation for a decapitation strike when something happens that she had not expected at all. As if he had been struck by something else, Angelus gasps and goes rigid. Looking into his eyes she could swear she had seen them glow with an inner fire before returning to normal. She thinks normal, rather than the way they were before, because even though he collapses and breaks eye contact with her she knew that there was something there in the windows that were his eyes that had not been there a minute ago. With sobs and gasps hinting at massive emotional turmoil Angelus knelt there before her and while she didn't know what was going on she refused to be deceived by the vampire again.

"Buffy?" Angelus inquires with a sob, "What's going on?"

_Buffy? Not Buff?_ Thinks the blonde Slayer as she picks up on the different usage of her name.

"Where are we? I-I don't remember." Stutters the vampire as he looks about the room in a seemingly genuine effort to figure out what was going on.

_Could it be?_ Buffy asks as the truth suddenly hits her due to the complete lack of deceit in the bewildered vampire's voice.

"Angel?" she asks tentatively as she is not quite sure she can bring herself to accept the truth even though her body is already lowering her sword.

"**NO!**" comes a furious bellow that all at once obliterates both the Slayer's gradually rising joy and relief along with Angel's gradually clearing confusion.

Turning in the direction of the voice both are shocked at what they saw though for reasons both expected and unexpected. Standing at the entrance to the mansion, his eyes full of fury and his visible knuckles going white with how hard they have been clenched into fists, was Xander and **MAN** did he look pissed.

Storming towards them like he was ready to tear them both to pieces Buffy was caught completely unprepared as her goofy friend grabbed her by the shoulder and **threw** her away from Angel as though he was the Slayer and she was not. Slamming into the wall to the left of the door to the atrium her senses blurred for a moment as the impact sent a shock through her system that took a few moments to clear. When her senses did get back into working order she shook her head again because there was no way that everything could be working properly given what she was seeing right then. Standing in front of Alfalfa, whose eyes were aglow and the beginnings of a portal beginning to form in front of its mouth, was Xander holding Angel by the throat **one-handed** while using the cast covered hand to deliver punches that if the vampire's reactions were anything to go by were unnaturally potent.

"Xander!" she yelled trying to get him to stop hitting Angel and listen to her.

She achieved her goal as the devastating blows did stop and he did turn towards her but when her gaze met his it was like she was looking at a different person. In the eyes she was looking at now was a thunderous rage, a storm of fury, which refused to yield to anyone or anything. Even with his attention now on her it in no way weakened the teenage guy's grip on Angel as the vampire's throat was still firmly in his left hand.

"No Buffy! He is **not** going to get away again!" Xander yelled with fury in his voice and no little disgust, "You're **pathetic**! Just when I thought you'd finally come to your senses and decided to do your duty it turns out to be the mall all **over** again! You're an embarrassment to the title **vampire slayer**!"

While under normal circumstances she would no doubt be in pain at the sharp and hate filled words being spoken to her by her friend these were hardly normal circumstances in her book. After all right before her eyes right now Xander's hair seemed to be growing at a fantastic rate with the majority of it shooting upwards with exception of a couple of bangs descending in the front. Also, even though it could be a trick of the light in the room, she could swear that his muscles were becoming more toned by the second. Not that they were all that visible because of the clothes he wore but she could tell by the way the shirt and pants were getting less and less baggy. Something was happening to Xander, changing him, and she had no idea what he was transforming into. Whatever was happening to him it was obviously messing with his mind because she had never seen her friend act like this even at his worst.

"Xander stop! Willow did the curse!" she cried trying to pierce through the anger the young man was feeling to get at his rational mind, "He's Angel again!"

"**SO WHAT!** That just means we'll get a little breather before he gets his next happy and goes psycho on us again!" Xander yelled oblivious to the fact that his cast arm was inching towards Angel as though it wanted very badly to hit the vampire with a soul, "He's a ticking time bomb and every time he blows it'll be our fault because we didn't dust him when we had the chance! THIS **ENDS** HERE AND **NOW**!"

With those words five things happened that she would always remember and would be the cause of many nightmares in the weeks to come. The first was the sight of Xander's cast arm rising up, as though it had the Xan-man's full support, until it was fully extended and pointed right at Angel's chest. The second was the explosive destruction of the cast around her friend's right arm like a mailbox that had been filled with fire-crackers which had been lit. The real surprise came a moment later when the sound of ripping filled the air and a two foot long furry tail, give or take an inch or two, tore through the back of Xander's jeans just above his butt. It hadn't even built up inside of the jeans before bursting out, it just shot out as though the pants had been made out of tissue paper. The third thing that happened was Xander's formerly cast covered hand moving as though it hadn't been injured at all. The wrist and the fingers flexed for a moment, as if to confirm that it had been completely healed somehow, before Xander straightened his fingers raised his palm until it looked like the universal sign for stop. A second later the fourth thing happened when a blast of energy somehow shot out from the palm of Xander's hand and tore through Angel's chest like a cannonball through a tree trunk. There was a sigh of relief in the back of her mind when Angel didn't dust and that part of her figured the blast must have just missed the souled vampire's heart.

It was however with the fifth and final thing to occur that any relief the Slayer may have been feeling was washed away by a flurry of panic. Instead of fading out like most energy blasts did after they had succeeded in damaging their targets Xander's blast just kept going until it struck the vortex being generated by Alfalfa. Unbeknownst to her though, at the precise same time as the energy blast made contact with the vortex so too did a bit of Angel's blood. In another reality the Slayer would have simply impaled her sword through the body of her love and the vortex would have simply drawn the vampire with a soul inside before shutting down for good. In this reality though, chance and chaos are a little more interested in having fun and so what should have been impossible became possible. With the combination of Angel's blood and Xander's energy blast a violent reaction began to build up in the vortex, arcs of energy dancing every which way as the portal's nature began to go into a state of flux. Ripples began to flow across its surface like a rock thrown in a pond with Xander's energy blast being the rock. The dusty orange colour began to change as well flickering towards a more sky blue colour even if the change was difficult to perceive using human eyes. It wasn't until she noticed the look of confusion and maybe fear that was forming on Xander's face that she knew something more was up than just a freaky light show.

Her friend had already tossed Angel aside by this point, thankfully in such a way that the vampire with a soul hadn't been cut into two pieces. The vampire was unconscious but given that he wasn't dust hopefully meant that if he consumed enough blood his body would recover from the damage and not look so gory. When she looked back at Xander she saw him trying with all his strength to stop the energy blast or at least disconnect himself from the vortex that looked decidedly twitchy. Unfortunately no matter how much energy or strength he seemed to be putting into the effort nothing Xander did could free him from the connection that had formed.

_Could things get any worse?_ She thought as she tried to come up with some way to help her friend break free.

If Buffy Anne Summers had been thinking straight, she would have realized that given the town she was in, there were certain words and phrases that one should not utter under any circumstances. Words like 'wish' and phrases like 'I will be right back' were at the top of the list, but the question 'could things get any worse' was definitely in the top ten. As if to illustrate this, the vortex as well as everything else involved with it pulsed violently and with jerk Xander went from standing in one spot trying to get free to trying to keep himself from being dragged towards the portal. It was a tug of war between Xander Harris and the vortex with the Xan-man looking decidedly outmatched. He yanked and pulled on the troubling arm in an attempt to severe the connection but to no avail. He tried to brace himself and set his feet in such a stance so as to bring this wacky tug-of-war to a halt but all it did was slow the pace of his progress towards the portal. In short nothing seemed capable of keeping him from keeping his appointment with the residents of the hell dimension on the other side of the vortex.

Deciding that the time for watching was over, Buffy rose to her feet and prepared to run over and add her own Slayer strength to Xander's in the hope that together they could keep him away from the vortex long enough for it to wink out. However, the second she completed her first step she suddenly found herself incapable of moving an inch in any direction. It wasn't just her feet either but rather the majority of her body with the exception of her head was frozen in place as though it were made of stone. Surprised by this, she redoubled her efforts to get her body to obey her commands but no matter how much she willed it, she remained frozen in place.

Helpless she watched as Xander was dragged towards the vortex and just as her reached the 'one foot away' mark the energy that had once been arcing over the event horizon reached out and pulled him in with one quick jerk. Then with a whoosh of air the portal hit rewind, quickly getting smaller and smaller in diameter, before winking out entirely. However, that was not the finale of the show. The finale was when two seconds after the vortex winked out, Alfalfa shattered as though someone had placed a stick of dynamite inside of him and lit the fuse. When a piece of the stone demon hit her in the chest, full mobility and control of her body was returned to her but all that did was allow her to drop to the ground in a daze as her mind struggled to comprehend what had just happened.

Something had happened to her Xander-shaped friend. He had been changed into something else. In mind as well as in body, he had been made different from who and what he had been beforehand. Most of all though he had been taken from her, taken against his will to who knew where. Sure, the original destination for the portal had been a hell dimension but even she, who had little if any knowledge of science or sorcery, knew that the portal had not been acting as designed when Xander had gone through it. He could literally be anywhere, in any reality or dimension, and the one possible way of determining which one to look at had just blown into a billion pieces.

Over and over again his hate filled words echoed in her mind and no matter how she tried to justify her actions or excuse them in some way, the words of the founding male member of the Scoobies remained painfully true. In her desperation to hold on to the one thing that made her destiny as the Slayer a little more bearable, she had neglected her duties and put everyone in danger. If she had staked Angelus at the mall when she had the chance, Ms. Calendar would still be alive to fill Giles' heart with love and Willow would still have someone to teach her magic. If she had done her duty as the Slayer, many people would still be alive today. With this realization, she made a promise to herself and to her lost friend that from this day onward she would do everything she could to keep her heart and her duty separate. Never again would she allow her own personal desires interfere with the execution of her duty as the Slayer.

In the name of one Xander Harris she made this promise.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**The Realm of the Powers That Be, Main Council Chambers, Same Time**_

"I WANT HIM ARRESTED!" Mrs. Grumpy Imp bellowed across the council chambers while pointing an accusing finger at Mr. Elderly Wiseman.

"What may I ask are the charges?" Mr. Elderly Wiseman asked as though he had forgotten the name of the person he was supposed to meet for brunch.

"YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHAT YOU DID YOU ABSENTMINDED OLD FOOL!" Mrs. Grumpy Imp bellowed in a rage looking like she would all too happy to charge across the room and strangle her adversary herself.

"Please calm down my dear." Mr. Elderly Wiseman said trying to calm down the obviously emotional female, "If I have done something to offend you then please tell me and do so in a civil manner. After all you can hardly expect to be taken seriously ranting and raving like the mentally disturbed now can you?"

Mrs. Grumpy Imp grudgingly acknowledged this point and, with more than a little difficulty, forced her anger down to the point where she could sound and appear rational.

"I was referring to the arrangement made soon after The Judge debacle when you agreed that if Alexander Harris showed signs of his Saiyan heritage, beyond personality traits, that he would immediately be terminated." Mrs. Grumpy Imp stated with the true extent of her fury still visible in her eyes, "As this entire council is aware less than five Earth minutes ago Harris did exactly that, but when I attempted to carry out the execution, my powers were completely blocked as were the powers of others who shared my views."

Much to Mrs. Grumpy Imp's surprise there was no discussion of her accusation among the other members of the council, no discussion at all. A part of her worried about what this could mean, the majority of her was convinced that they were simply shocked speechless by what the elder had done.

"Well, it is common that such dimensional disturbances can interfere with our powers if not outright block them." Mr. Elderly Wiseman stated with some sympathy for her efforts being thwarted but not a trace of guilt that might have indicated he had something to do with it, "In any case it seems that the problem has been solved for us. After all, young Alexnader has been whisked away to only the Almighty knows where. With the destruction of Acathla, it will be impossible for him to use it as a means to return."

"You have the **GALL** to mention that!" Mrs. Grumpy Imp yelled before restraining herself, "Everyone in this room knows that it was you who influenced Acathla's portal to alter its destination **NOT** the monkey's ki blast. It is also quite likely that it was you who destroyed Acathla immediately afterwards to prevent anyone from finding the animal and dealing out the proper punishment. My fellow council members, it is clear from what we have all observed that the elder has reneged on the agreement set down months ago and willingly interfered with the implementation of the agreed upon punishment. I believe it is clear what must be done."

"Indeed, it is clear what must be done." Mr. Elderly Wiseman said as he made a quick gesture with his right hand.

With a flash of light columns of blue-white light shot towards the sky imprisoning Mrs. Grumpy Imp and her supporters within them. Closer to the base of the columns, the devices that generated them became visible in a form most Earth movie fans would easily be able to identify. Two separate rings, spinning around like hula-hoops, one on top of another and sending a surge of energy up the columns skywards each time they completed a rotation. Needless to say every last one of the captured **former** council members were floored by this unexpected turn of events but none more so than Mrs. Grumpy Imp.

"What is going on here!" Mrs. Grumpy Imp asked once she had finally gotten over her shock at the current situation.

"You have been found guilty of wilfully manipulating the life of a mortal to further your own agenda." Mr. Elderly Wiseman replied promptly with some disappointment in his voice, "Did you really think you could orchestrate such poor living conditions for young Alexander and not be found out?"

Mrs. Grumpy Imp could only stare in disbelief at the elder's words.

"Really my dear, while your skills may have earned your place on this august council, my skills are far superior." Mr. Elderly Wiseman said like a teacher chastising a particularly arrogant student, "I was aware of your machinations to bring about the end of young Alexander the very moment you conceived of them. The only reason matters were allowed to progress to their present point was our Lord wished to see just how far you were prepared to take matters as well as whether or not the boy would flourish despite your efforts."

To this, Mrs. Grumpy Imp could only glare at her enemy since that was all she could do from within her cylindrical prison.

"You have broken your promise, a promise made in front of this very council, and have violated one of our Lord's most sacred decrees concerning mortals: free will." Mr. Elderly Wiseman stated as his words were put into official record for all time, "As these are most serious crimes, the last being the most important, there can be only one punishment delivered. It is a punishment so severe that it has not been employed since the beginning. Take heart however that your years of faithful service will be taken into account and afford you some leniency. So it shall be done."

"So it shall be done." Chanted the members of the council not imprisoned in the pillars of blue-white light.

_I will **NOT** forget this boy!_ Mrs. Grumpy Imp thought as her fury burned away all else within her, _You filthy little **MONKEY**!_

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

So it was that Mrs. Grumpy Imp (aka a female version of Snyder mixed with Rita Skeeter from 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' movie) and her followers were cast out of the higher heavenly planes of existence to their just deserts. It should be noted that there actually was some leniency shown to them but whether or not it was a good thing depended on who was asked. For Mr. Elderly Wiseman (aka the Richard Harris version of Albus Dumbledore) it was his task to begin constructing contingency plans and additions to the strategies and tactics that had already been laid down by the council.

After all, no matter what leniency and allowances had been made for young Alexander as compensation for Mrs. Grumpy Imp's deceitful actions, the problem of the boy's existence still remained. The Almighty had decreed shortly after Mrs. Grumpy Imp had been cast out that no actions of any kind would be taken against the boy should he return. Given the power and potential for destruction the Saiyan had, Alexander could make quite a mess of the plans laid down to fight evil if he chose to do so in the future. While it was possible that his time living as a normal human might prove incentive enough to side with the forces of good, the Wiseman's job was to figure out what they'd do if he did not.

"I sincerely hope that the discovery of your Saiyan heritage does not alter who you are at your core, young Alexander." Mr. Elderly Wiseman said to the empty room that was his office, "For if you choose to use your great power to aide the light in its battles against the darkness you may well be a turning point unto yourself in this struggle."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**The Earth of Dragonball Z (hereafter to be called and referred to as 'Earth D')**_

_**August, 764 A.D **_

_**(Using the timeline shown at**_

_**wwwdotpojodotcomslashdragonballslashdragonballtimelinedotshtml)**_

_Something is going on and I want to know what the hell it is!_ Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans, thought as he watched Kakarott float over to pass on whatever that purple-haired stranger had told him.

To say that he had been having a bad day would have been an understatement worthy of being blast into another dimension.

After having all the bones in that person's body pounded into fine powder.

First he had returned to this pathetic mudball of a planet to find out if Kakarott had come back and if he hadn't, to get that woman and her idiot father to refuel the ship he had taken from them so he could resume both his training and his search. No sooner did he get out of the ship then that **woman** had the gall to tell **him** to take a shower! HIM! While he did take a shower it **wasn't** because she had told him too. He had planned on taking one the moment he had set course for Earth but just hadn't gotten around to it with his training taking up most of his time. So as far as he had been concerned if this woman was willing to provide him with a place to take a shower then he'd gladly take it. He should have known it was a trap.

Not one of the Earthlings that he had met since first setting foot on this miserable dust ball had shown him even the slightest inkling of respect a prince like him deserved. Even after he had shown them his power and skill, they still refused to acknowledge him as their better. He should have been on the guard the moment that female had offered anything to him no matter how basic. Instead he had cleaned himself off only to find his clothes gone and something bizarre put in its place. The pants hadn't been too bad or she shoes for that matter. The shirt on the other hand had been a **BIG** problem.

It was **PINK!**

It had taken everything in his being to not obliterate those buffoons visiting once they had started laughing at his shirt. Only an offhand comment by the woman about it being smarter to wait on Earth for Kakarotts return had lessened his anger enough to keep that section of the property, and that woman's friends, in one piece.

Less than an hour later, he had sensed along with all the other morons that had been on Namek before it blew up something that should have been impossible.

Freeza.

Despite not hearing anything about that monster for months and being sure that Kakarot possessed the power to kill the enslaver of the Saiyan race, he had been sure the chrome domed tyrant had died when Namek was destroyed. Yet, there was no mistaking the ki signature and even more unbelievable was that there was another huge signature with the tyrant. With that in mind, he didn't even think when he took to the air and headed in the general direction of where he estimated Freeza would land his ship. Those human fools and for some reason that woman weren't far behind him for some reason. He didn't even know why they bothered to come in the first place. None of them had faced Freeza and none of them were anywhere near strong enough to even scratch the dictator's armor. 'I hope they can at least be competent decoys' was what he had thought at the time while formulating a strategy to direct most of the enemy fire their way.

After yelling at that scar face Yamcha as well as the three-eyed cue ball and his doll-sized friend to mask their ki signatures, Freeza's ship finally chose to appear. Ordering the morons to approach on foot in order to keep from being spotted, he ran in the direction of the area where the ship had touched down. It had been his intention at the time to do some covert surveillance of his 'ex-employer' to see who exactly he had brought with him and what changes the platinum coated tyrant had undergone. However, Fate chose that moment to rob him of that chance as another power signature appeared and began to tear apart Freeza's forces. One after another, the ki signals of the cannon fodder the tyrant had brought with him disappeared until only the stranger, Freeza and the one who had come to Earth with the dictator remained. It had been **maddening** trying to figure out what was going on and who the stranger had been. What was worse was the feeling in his gut that the ki signature of the stranger seemed almost Saiyan in nature. His feeling was confirmed, much to his wounded pride, a few minutes later when the stranger's ki began to grow and intensify until in was plain for all to see that a Super Saiyan had emerged. To say that this had pissed of the Prince of all Saiyans would be an understatement as once again he had been shown up by a nobody.

Once both Freeza and the other one who looked like a relation had been destroyed, the boy had the audacity to tell them to **follow** him! Angrily he followed if only to find out if Kakarot really was going to be back today. If that third class Saiyan did return the he'd make sure that fool didn't leave until he explained how he became a Super Saiyan. When they **finally** arrived at the spot where the stranger said Kakarot was due to land they soon found out it would be **three** hours until the clown arrived. While he hadn't been pleased by that he decided he'd use the time to interrogate this warrior who had fooled all the others into believing he was a Super Saiyan. Unlike them, he knew for a fact that there had been only four survivors of the destruction of the Saiyan homeworld and this boy wasn't one of them. He took every opportunity that presented itself to poke holes in the young man's story but that was difficult since the idiot refused to answer any serious questions. Eventually he had stopped asking since it was clear the punk wasn't going to answer any of his questions anytime soon.

Three hours later, just as the boy had said, Kakarot returned to the planet Earth in what looked to be a Ginyu Force space pod. What he was wearing when he stepped out proved once again that the fool was nothing more than a clown rather than a proper Saiyan. He looked ridiculous, completely without pride or self-respect, wearing that revolting outfit! After illustrated his poor grasp of reality, Kakarot was dragged away by the boy to discuss something in private too far away to be overheard. It was at that point he had seriously considered just tackling the punk and beating the truth out of him but instead decided to wait. If the boy wanted to tell his secrets to that fool Goku then he could go right ahead and do so. He'd just pound the answers out of that clown later. However as one unexplained thing happened after another his anger revived since he had been unable to come up with any answers for the questions he had.

_Hopefully the buffoon will tell us what he knows or else I'll make him talk!_ Vegeta thought while glaring demandingly at Kakarot.

"Dad!" exclaimed Gohan as he ran up to meet his father.

"Goku, what did he say?" Krillin asked with excitement and curiousity.

"It's no big deal…" Kakarot replied but both Vegeta and the Namek knew he was lying and doing a poor job of it.

"If you're not going to tell them then I will." Picollo said in clear disagreement with his former enemy's choice to keep what he knew a secret, "This concerns all of us and I think we deserve a chance to change our fates."

"Picollo, you heard him?" Goku asked surprised that the Namek could hear the conversation going on as far away as he and the stranger had been.

"My hearing is better than yours." Picollo replied as though the clownish Saiyan should have figured that out by looking at his green pointed ears.

"What do you mean?" Bulma asked clearly more concerned with the news Picollo was going to tell them than how well the Namek could hear.

"C'mon, tell us." Krillin said since he was clearly nervous at the talk of 'fates'.

"Well… ummm…" Goku said apparently not entirely convinced that letting the others know what he and the stranger had been talking about.

"Don't worry, I won't tell them about 'that' but we can't keep the rest of it to just the two of us." Picollo said trying to ease his former enemy's concerns, "They all need to know now if we're going to survive three years from now."

"Survive?" Gohan asked with a little fear as words like that generally meant another evil force was looming on the horizon.

So for the next ten minutes the Namek explained everything that Kakarot had learned from the purple haired stranger. Apparently in three years time a pair of killer androids would appear and kill them all with the exception of Gohan. The world in the future was little more than a wasteland with two mechanical monsters terrorizing the pathetic people and destroying anything that struck their fancy. Of course he didn't care about any of that, neither the people nor the planet, but the fact that he himself was killed while Kakrot's brat survived was an insult. Him, a pureblood Saiyan prince, killed by some mechanical morons while a half-breed somehow manages to survive! Intolerable!

"It doesn't seem real." Yamcha said as if his mind was still coming to grips with what he had just been told.

"A time machine?" Bulma exclaimed in shock given how monstrous an achievement her future self had achieved.

"Forget about it if you don't believe me, you can go ahead and do nothing, but I, for one, will sure be training hard." Picollo said making his position on the matter clear, "Because I don't feel like dying so soon."

Just as the Namek said that the wind, that had moments before been nothing more than a gentle breeze, suddenly rose to gale force winds. Not only that but the clouds that loomed overhead began to take on a stormy look making Vegeta wonder if some idiot was using the Earth's dragonballs. Although he couldn't hear the voices of the others over the high-speed winds, he could tell that they were voicing similar opinions. Looking around, using both his eyes and his ki sensing abilities, he tried to find the source of the disturbance since the rays of sunlight poking through the clouds eliminated the dragonball theory. Seeing the Namek suddenly point directly above them he turned to see what it could be and found a portal of some kind forming in mid-air. Bolts of energy crackled outwards from it and every once and awhile a ripple would flow out from the center before disappearing when it reached the outer edges. Wider and wider it grew until it was easily large enough to swallow all of them at once. However what the portal wound up doing was the exact opposite of that as instead of taking something or someone into itself it spit a lone object out. A person from what they could tell and judging from the fact that the person was making no attempt to slow their descent to the hard ground below was incapable of flying.

Predictably Kakarot took to the sky and flew to rescue the unexpected guest before he/she/it impacted on the surface. Less than a minute he returned but what he lowered to the ground proved to everyone that there were deeper levels of shock than the one they had experienced after hearing about the androids. There, standing unsteadily on his feet apparently disoriented, was a young man that looked to be about seventeen years old and was six feet tall. The shocking part came in when Vegeta took into account the young man's two most distinguishing features: a familiar furry tail flicking sluggishly behind him and black gravity defying hair. For the second time that day the prince of all Saiyans was shown physical proof that there was definitely more than four surviving members of his race. As the portal faded from existence, as did both the wind and dark clouds associated with it, the unknown Saiyan standing before him regained his senses and took in the people around him. Who was he? Where did he come from? These were the questions that Vegeta wanted answered and soon before he decided to use more painful methods of getting them.

"Where the **hell** am I and who the **fuckin' hell** are you guys?" the Saiyan asked with a look that said he would resort to similar painful interrogation methods if the answers to his questions weren't given immediately.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&


	3. New World, New Rules, New People

_**Capsule Corps Headquarters, Living Room, Two Hours Later**_

"So let me get this straight." Xander said as he tried to wrap his mind around everything that he'd been told over the last hour, "I'm on **Earth** but an alternate Earth different from the one I know. An Earth where there are flying cars, animal people, dinosaurs and people from other planets just to top things off. And all of you, or at least most of you, are warriors with powers straight out of the comic books and could blow up this entire planet if you wanted. Finally you're saying that because my hair looks like I stuck my finger in an electrical socket and I have this really weird furry tail thing sticking out of my butt you're saying I'm an alien too. Does that about cover it?"

"Yep! That about covers it." Replied the man in the weird outfit who went by the name Goku.

"Kinda crazy sounding huh?" Krillin the cue ball head asked rhetorically, obviously trying to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal.

"Not really." Xander replied when he compared this world to what he had lived through for the past two years on his Earth, "Actually compared to what me and my friends dealt with almost every night back home this is actually normal."

"Travelling to new worlds and other dimensions is normal for you?" exclaims Yamcha who apparently thought the Xan-Man should be completely freaking out at the moment.

"Not so much the new worlds and dimension travelling as stumbling upon the new and the weird." He replied honestly since it was true that ever since he met Buffy it was just one weird and wacky thing after another in his life.

Seeing them looking at him in an obvious 'please explain that to us' group look he sighed and then went into a shortened version of Sunnyhell and what the Scooby gang did there during their free time. He of course omitted any embarrassing moments of his and **maybe** gave a slightly distorted view of Deadboy but aside from that kept things accurate. He told them of all the demons and vampires that he'd helped to kill and how he'd even defeated prophecy by saving Buffy's life. By the end of it he could tell most of them had accepted that the weird and the unusual really was a pretty common thing for him. Well all except for the guy who looked like a walking paintbrush with his hairdo and a permanent scowl on his face. Surprisingly enough the guy was named Vegeta and was somehow proud of a name that sounded like it was short for vegetable. Vegeta was looking at him like all it would take was a glare from him to make him tell them everything from the first memory he could recall to the present no matter how inconsequential it might be. Definitely someone who took the whole 'bad ass hero' routine a little too far but it was probably necessary given that he wasn't much taller than Buffy.

"So what do you plan on doing now?" asked Bulma, the resident blue haired genius that he knew his best bud Willow would spend **days** talking geek with if the two ever met.

"Dunno. I don't suppose you guys have invented an inter-dimensional portal in this dimension yet?" he asked with faint hope that in this world where science seemed to be a century ahead of his own world that it might have been accomplished.

"Sorry I'm afraid not. Up until that stranger showed up three hours before you did, I didn't know time travel was possible." Bulma replied shaking her head with empathy for his plight.

"Which makes it all the harder to believe that **you** are a Saiyan!" Vegeta growled as he apparently had enough of trying to stare the truth out of him, "I know for a fact that only four pure blooded Saiyans escaped Freeza's attempt at genocide and you aren't one of them! So cut the crap and tell us who you really are **NOW!**"

"Look Brush-Boy I don't know what bug you got up your ass but I'm telling the truth!" Xander said fiercely as he didn't like the way this guy was coming down on him for no reason, "I **know** that twenty-four hours ago my hair was shorter, less gravity defying and I certainly didn't have a tail sticking out of my ass! So if you don't think I'm a Saiyan then your probably right but quit bitching to me about it 'cause I ain't thrilled about the new look myself!"

"Why you insolent little--!" Vegeta growled as he hands changed into fists and it looked like he was going to teach the Xan-Man some manners in his own unique way.

"Hold it right there Buster!" Bulma said angrily as she got in between the two of them, "You're not fighting and busting up my place! Vegeta, if you want to know if Xander's a Saiyan or not we can pay a visit to my aunt Beru downtown. She can run a genetic test that'll be able to tell whether or not he's what he appears to be or not."

For a moment Xander thought that maybe, just maybe, Vegeta would back down since the short warrior didn't strike him as the type to be willing to undergo genetic testing just to find out whether or not some stranger was from the same planet as him.

"Fine! Let's get it over with!" Vegeta growled as he stood up and headed towards the stairs leading to the front door.

This statement had the effect of having not just Xander but also everyone else in the room gaping in the direction of the arrogant prick like he'd gone nuts. This lasted up until the miserable man started down the steps but when Vegeta clued in that they weren't following he stomped back up the stairs and glared at them.

"Well c'mon! I don't have all day!" Vegeta yelled impatiently with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**Evening, Capsule Corps, Xander's Room (tentatively) **_

_Well it's official: I am officially an alien._ Xander thought with a tone of finality in his mind.

They had gotten to Bulm's Aunt Beru's place of employment in under half an hour and spent the next three there before finally returning to the Capsule Corps building. The test to find out if he was really a Saiyan actually only took about half an hour but when Dr. Beru told everyone the test results Vegeta hadn't been satisfied and demanded more tests. So a half dozen scans later that compared his bone structure, blood elements and a few other things to Brush-boy's physiology it was confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt that he was indeed a Saiyan. Beru went so far as to make a snide comment that if wasn't born a Saiyan than someone did a damn good job of turning him into one. This apparently pissed off shorty to no end causing him to blast off into the sky once outside and not be seen or heard from since. That left the rest of them to head home and given that he had none in this world Bulma offered him one of the guest rooms at Capsule Corps. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth he had accept which brought him to where he was right at that moment.

Staring at the ceiling of his room trying to come to terms with his new set of circumstances.

The way he figured it, some demon or angel or something had decided that his life was too ordinary and need to be messed with a little to make it more interesting. That or one of them heard him mentally wishing for some super powers so he could help out the gang better. How that had got him shot into another dimension was still a question he had bouncing around his skull. It was still a bit of a blur but he could kind of recall what happened at the Crawford mansion where Angelus had planned on awakening Acathla. He knew he had been pissed beyond words and let everyone including Buffy know it and he was almost certain that was where his hair went punk and the monkey tail sprouted. If he was right about that then why'd whoever did this to him rig it so that getting a mad on was what would trigger the change. It didn't make sense.

Unless of course he'd been a Saiyan to begin with and for some reason his body had decided to wait until he was well into puberty before it showed its true colours. Growling in frustration, he mentally tossed that brain buster of a dilemma into the back of his mind to let his subconscious work on it for a few days. Moving onto another topic of interest he wondered about the story he'd heard from Bulma a few minutes before he'd headed to bed. Apparently some time travelling Saiyan from the future had come back in time to warn them that in three years a pair of killer androids were going to pop up and kill them all. If he understood things right Goku, Picollo, Vegeta and the others were the equivalent of the Justice League in this universe taking on all the threats capable of mass murder or planetary destruction. If these androids were enough to kill off all but one member of this group of fighters than they were all in trouble with a capital T. Him too, if he didn't find a way of getting back to his Earth before the three year time limit was up.

He had talked about it some more with Bulma over a cup of coffee in the kitchen and while she still didn't have a clue where to begin, she promised that she'd try to find a way to send him home. Given that everyone seemed to treat her like a genius, he'd trust that she could deliver when the time came. That still left him with the problem of surviving the androids if Bulma wasn't able to construct a dimensional portal within three years. He knew that the smart thing to do would probably find a good place to hide and wait while hoping that Goku and the others came on top. Unfortunately that was too much like turning his back on the truth of Sunnydale and after Jesse's death that was the one thing he swore he'd never do again. If he had known about vampires, known about what lurked in the dark and shadowed corners of town, before his friend had been turned he would have been able to prevent it from happening. The only problem with doing the opposite of turning his back in this situation was that he was obviously not even half as powerful as the weakest fighter of the team of warriors.

_I'll have to do something about that._ He thought as he tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in without pinching his tail.

That little addition to his anatomy had taken some serious getting used to and truth be told he was still trying to adjust to the extra appendage. He could **feel** it moving and little by little he was learning how to get it to do what he wanted when he wanted but for the moment it pretty much moved randomly. The big problem had been figuring out how to sit on a chair, or as the case was at that moment laying in bed, without twisting and pinching it painfully. In the end he had to satisfy himself with lying on his stomach in order to get some sleep. He had a feeling he'd be waking up randomly all night every time he unconsciously rolled onto his back or ever his side.

_This is going to take some serious getting used to._ He thought as he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**The Next Morning, Capsule Corps, Kitchen**_

"Is it normal for a Saiyan to eat this much?" Xander asked as he looked at the stacked plates and bowls that illustrated how much food he had just eaten.

"Yeah its about that much." Bulma replied as she reached down to take the first stack to the sink, "Actually I think you might have eaten a little less than Vegeta or Goku usually do."

_And I thought I ate a lot back in Sunnydale!_ Xander thought in amazement as he reviewed in his mind just how much it had taken in order to feel full.

Apparently Saiyan bodies were either gas-guzzlers or just had much higher energy demands than a human body. Given the examples he had seen so far he was betting it was the latter rather than the former and that would mean trouble if he ever got back to Sunnydale.

_Not IF! WHEN!_ He thought harshly to himself as he stopped himself from falling into the old trap of setting himself up for defeat.

WHEN he got back home the food bill alone was going to bankrupt him for sure unless he managed to find a decent paying job. Also knowing his luck there was probably some kind of time difference between this dimension and his home dimension which meant by the time Bulma finished the portal everyone he knew could be dead. All in all this new turn of events was turning out to be a serious pain the ass and if found out that it was something someone else had done to him his fists were definitely going to want to have a long talk with that person. Still he had to look on the bright side of things, the silver lining, and all that.

"Look I don't know how rich you are but given how much your food bill is probably going to go up with me here I'd be willing to work in order to earn my keep." Xander said as he felt he had to do something to pay the Brief family for putting him up while he stayed in this dimension.

"Hey don't worry about it! Capsule Corps is one of the most successful companies on the planet." Bulma said like the food bill would be no problem, "Trust me. Unless you decided to devour every scrap of food in the city feeding you won't be a problem. Besides it's nice having someone around with some actual manners for a change."

"Still if there's anything you need done just ask 'cause I'd feel kinda guilty staying here without doing anything for you in return." Xander said honestly.

"Sure." Bulma said realizing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with the 'it is nothing' approach.

_With that out of the way I think it's time to ask her the big question._ He thought as he prepared to voice the decision he came too last night.

"Hey Bulma? Do you know where Goku's place is?" he asked casually so as not to make her think something big was up just yet.

"Sure. It's in the East 439 district." Bulma replied automatically before getting that puzzled look on her face, "Why do you want to know?"

"Well I was kinda hoping that you could drive me out there so I could ask Goku to start training me." Xander replied and when he saw her eyes widen in surprise he decided to state his reasons sooner than later, "Look you said yourself that it'll take at least four years to figure out how to send me home right? Well with the android mess that's gonna pop up in three years there's no guarantee that I'll survive unless I get stronger. So can you take me up to his place?"

"Sure. How about this afternoon?" Bulma asked as his reasons made sense even if he was underestimating how quickly she'd crack the dimensional portal problem.

"Sounds good. Now all I gotta do is figure out how to convince him to train me." Replied Xander since he knew that Goku would probably be busy with training of his own.

"Oh I don't think you'll have much trouble convincing him." Bulma said with the utmost confidence, "Goku's always been a pretty easy going guy plus he'll probably be excited to have someone else to spar with up there."

"He's that fixated on fighting?" Xander asked as he took what Bulma had just told him and put it in the pile of stuff he had learned about Goku so far.

"Oh all Saiyans are or so I've heard. Apparently fighting is in their blood." Bulma replied as the placed the second stack of dirty dishes into the sink, "In fact I wouldn't be surprised if you start to like fighting too. You are a Saiyan after all."

"I might be a Saiyan biologically right now but I grew up a human." Xander replied not liking being reminded of the fact that he was technically no longer human.

"So was Goku. When he arrived here on this planet he was just as foul tempered and rude as Vegeta. Then he got a serious knock on the head and his whole personality changed." Bulma said before depositing the final stack of dishes next to the sink, "He was raised by his Granpa Gohan and turned out like he is now so just because you were raised as a human doesn't mean you can't feel like a Saiyan."

"I guess." Xander replied not sure exactly what to think about that.

"Well then I'm off to the lab to tie up a few loose ends before taking you to Goku's so go back another set of clothes." Bulma said as she headed for the far entrance/exit of the kitchen, "If you're going to be training with Goku then you're going to go through an awful lot of clothes."

As he watched her leave he had to wonder exactly what she meant by that. He knew that while training his clothes were likely going to get dirty and maybe a little torn but he couldn't imagine how they'd get so banged up that he'd have to toss them in the garbage.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**Afternoon, East 439 District, The Son Home**_

"Quaint place." Xander said offhand as he looked about the home of supposedly this world's equivalent of Superman.

It was basically one of the dome shaped homes that seemed to be the standard for middle class families in this dimension with a shed or something off to the side. He couldn't really see more than that but from what he could tell that Goku liked the simple life and didn't go for any of the fancy stuff. It was sort of encouraging since it meant that he probably didn't have a big ego like Vegeta seemed to have and considering how far out in the wild it was a lot of work probably went into just making ends meet. In a way he supposed this could pass for the Kent farm if he wanted to continue comparing Goku to Superman. As he finished looking over the property the front door to the house opened to reveal a matronly woman in a blue cheongsam, pants and boots. Just like with her clothes her hair was done up in such a way that screamed 'mother' and a high strung one at that. He'd seen a few examples of that back in Sunnydale where the parents did their best to control and direct almost every part of their child's life. Some did it out of simple concern for the well being of their son or daughter while others did what they did so their children didn't do anything to ruin their reputation. Hopefully this woman was one of those who just wanted the best for her kid because he wasn't sure how long he could stomach the other type.

"Hello Bulma! It's good to see you." The woman said cheerfully with a friendly smile, "And who is this young man? A new boyfriend?"

"HAHAHAHA! No this is Xander. He's staying with me and my parents but he's not my boyfriend." Bulma replied laughing at the other woman's assumption, "He wanted to come out here to talk with Goku. Is he around?"

"Oh went down to the river to get some fish for dinner." The woman replied after taking a moment to think, "He should be back soon. Would you care to wait a bit?"

"Sure. I have a pretty clear schedule today." Xander replied with a little bit of a grin given that he in fact had **nothing** planned for today other than this.

He supposed that would be another reason that he wanted to ask Goku to train him. He had four years to kill here before the chance to go home would appear and he didn't want to spend it getting overly attached to the lifestyle here. If there was a way for him to return home a week from now or maybe a month he might be willing to take a look around and see the sights. He would probably treat it like a vacation and enjoy everything this version of Earth had to offer. However with four years between now and heading home he knew that if he wasn't careful he might start getting used to all the high tech comforts and luxuries and then it would be harder for him to leave them behind. Kind of like staying at an all expenses paid luxury resort for a month and then heading back to your old life in a middle class home living a middle class life. Better to occupy his time in the next four years with something he could actually take back with him than something that he'd have to leave behind. The tech here might work for a while back home and make his life a little easier but it would also cause him problems. For one thing maintaining a flying car or repairing a capsule would be too much trouble given how far behind his Earth to this version of Earth. Add to that the fact that it wouldn't take long for people to notice the advanced tech he had and within a year he'd probably have one organization or another knocking on his door looking to learn how it all worked. Besides combat skills and being able to fly would be better as far as helping the gang was concerned.

He, Bulma and the Mrs. Mom were about to head inside when Xander spotted something in the air heading their way. At first he thought it was one of those dinosaur birds that he had seen on the flight to the Capsule Corps building that first day but it was too odd a shape to be that. As it got closer though he was able to identify it even if it did introduce him to a new level of weird. Flying towards them with three fish thrown over his back was Goku. The weird thing though was the fact that the fish that he had slung over his back were about as big as kodiak bears and there were three of them. He didn't know how much each had to weigh but he imagined it would have to be more than your average person would be able to lift on their own much less carry anywhere.

_Just one more piece of evidence that I am one seriously weak Saiyan._ He thought as the hero of this world touched down in front of them.

"Hey Bulma, Xander, what's up?" Goku asked in a friendly manner as he set the fish down on the ground by his feet.

"Xander has a favour to ask you Goku." Bulma replied as she stepped aside and turned her head in his direction.

Now that the time had come the Xan-man was beginning to get a serious case of cold feet. After all, this guy was the Superman of this world and here he was a nobody from another dimension asking for lessons on how to become as good a fighter as him. For a moment, he considered coming up with some lame ordinary excuse for why he came up here but he had a feeling that Bulma wouldn't let him get away with it. If he tried to bullshit Goku, she'd probably step up right away and tell him the real reason with or without his permission. In the end, he concluded the request might as well come from him since it would get asked one way or another.

"Yeah I was wondering if you could maybe train me so I can fight the androids with the rest of you guys in three years." He stated as calmly and sincerely as he could without letting his own anxiety get thrown into the mix.

Goku frowned in thought and he was no doubt trying to figure out how much of a problem it would be to train a novice how to fight while still getting his own training in. Xander could just hear the gears turning in the mind of the strongest warrior on the planet and hoped that the guy would at least reject his request politely.

"Well I was planning on training with Picollo and Gohan for the next three years." Goku began as he looked up at Xander with a decision reached in his eyes, "Ah hell! Why not? Sure I can train you!"

"You sure about that?" Xander asked trying to make sure the potential teacher wasn't messing with him.

"Well sure! Chi-chi has already made it clear that Gohan has to balance his training with his studies so while he's doing schoolwork you and I can train." Goku said completely missing the look on Xander's face, "Then once you get strong enough you and Gohan can train while me and Picollo do some more advanced techniques. It's perfect!"

"Sounds good to me." Xander said feeling much better now that the awkward part was out of the way, "So when do you want to begin?"

"How about right now? Gohan won't be done studying for the day until after dinner so that'll give me some time to see just how much work we have to put into your training." Goku replied before giving the former Zeppo a once over, "First though we gotta get you some real training clothes. You can borrow some of mine since it looks like we're about the same height. C'mon!"

_I hope I know what I'm getting myself into._ Xander thought as he followed Goku into his home to change into some training clothes.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**Two Hours Later, A Clearing Two Miles North of the Son Home**_

_DAMN IT!_ Xander thought as he got knocked to the ground for what had to be the fiftieth time since the training session began.

It had started after he had been loaned one of Goku's training outfits, an orange and blue thing, and had moved far enough away from the Son home so that it wouldn't be in any danger. From there things had started off exactly as he had thought it would with Goku telling him to attack with everything he had so the Superman-wannabe could get a handle one where he stood skill-wise. Sadly if the last two hours were any indication he was going to really work his ass to death if he wanted to be of **ANY** help when the androids appeared in three years. For it was in fighting Goku that he realised that despite the effectiveness of his unique fighting style against vamps and some demons, it was absolutely pathetic against a fighter with some actually working brain cells in his head. The past one hundred and twenty minutes also proved that in a fight, a martial artist will kick the crap out of a boxer any day of the week without breaking a sweat. After all, his attacks had for the majority consisted if punches or other attacks used via the arms while his legs were only employed in sweeping attempts or knees to the gut. Add to that the fact that Goku's attacks more often than not sent him to the ground and he was left with several bruises and abrasions on top of his frustration at the lack of progress he was making. He knew that the easy going Saiyan was not going all out on him or even putting up much of a fight either. If things got serious all it would take would be one punch from the generous Goku and the Xan-man would be down for the count or dead depending on which way his luck went.

_There has to be a way to **at least get ONE hit in!**_ Xander thought as he got back to his feet and quickly began to try and block the attacks the head of the Son home was sending his way.

Lashing out with a kick that, thankfully, had the effect of causing his opponent to dodge backwards a couple of feet he took a moment to remember everything he knew about fighting superior opponents. The first was that if you tried to match them speed for speed and strength for strength you were gonna lose **very** quickly. The second was that if you couldn't match your enemy in speed or strength you had to turn their advantages into your own. Somehow he had to turn Goku's speed and strength to his advantage and that could only come if he could trick the more experienced fighter into making a mistake. That wouldn't be easy since his plan wasn't exactly the most original in all existence and his adversary had likely had it used against him before.

_That just means I'm gonna have to be extra creative._ He thought as an idea popped into his head.

Deciding to go on the offensive for once he charged Goku head on and began to deliver a rapid fire barrage of punches that he knew his adversary would be able to dodge or block. He also knew what would be coming next if his opponent stayed true to his pattern. Right on cue Goku took advantage of an opening that had been provided and fired off a knee thrust with the intention of knocking the wind out of the Xan-man's sails. With all the speed he could muster he brought up his right foot and placed it in the path of the incoming knee so that when the too connected he was lifted into the air above Goku. Now here came the tricky part because he didn't really know how he managed to pull it off the last time he did it beyond how his arm had felt from start to finish. Still if he pulled it off the combined surprise from both his evasion of the knee thrust and the execution of the attack should be enough to score a hit.

Thus reaching inside of himself he tried to reproduce the feelings and instincts that he had felt the last time he had performed the technique. The unbridled rage of at a friend's perceived betrayal, the fury at the **thing** that had captured the heart of one of his friends, and the unwavering resolve to destroy his enemy. Over and over again he fed those emotions until he was quite literally on the verge of boiling over with emotion. Then, before the emotions could fade away or be diluted any, he thrust his right arm out with the palm facing Goku and channelled every bit of rage in his body out through his palm. With all the force of a sci-fi laser cannon his hypothesis concerning how he had blown a hole in Angel was proved true as a beam of blue energy was fired from his palm down towards his surprised opponent. In the blink of an eye it connected with something and exploded as the blast of energy was met with the strength of the planet. A dust cloud exploded outwards and he could see little bits of dirt almost reach him where he was before they fell back to the ground. It was then that he noticed two things: a)there was no movement in the cloud or any sign that Goku had escaped it and b) gravity was taking its sweet time calling him back to mother Earth.

Taking a moment away from looking for Goku he looked down and noticed that indeed he wasn't falling back to the ground even though the momentum from being propelled by his opponent's kick should have worn itself out by now. Instead of heading back to Earth though he seemed to be almost hovering in mid-air, almost flying, like he had seen the other warriors of this dimension do. Of course the instant he realized that was the precise moment whatever he had been subconsciously doing to keep himself aloft decided to cut out. Without any warning whatsoever gravity yanked him hard back to the grass covered landscape below intent on making up for sleeping on the job earlier. So fast and unexpected was his descent that he barely managed to absorb the impact of the landing and roll once to deplete what remained of his momentum. However it soon became clear that he had used up his good luck for the day because no sooner did he fall back into a fighting posture than Goku appeared out of nowhere throwing a punch with his name on it.

_OH SHIT! _He thought an instant before the punch connected sending him easily fifty to seventy yards away seeing both stars and tweety birds since neither of them were at all sufficient by themselves considering the blow he'd just received.

Head throbbing and mind coming back together **way** too slowly he managed to push himself into a sitting position but that was going to be it for awhile until his head cleared some more. A momentary glance in Goku's direction thankfully told him that his sparring partner knew that he was unable to fight for a few minutes since the Saiyan dropped his battle edge assuming a more casual posture.

"You okay Xander?" Goku asked with concern as he sat down in front of the Xan-man.

"Yeah. I just need a couple of minutes 'til my brain stops vibrating from that punch you hit me with." Xander replied as he winced at a particularly strong throb, "I think you overdid it with that one just a **little** bit."

"Yeah I guess so but I really thought at the time that you'd be able to dodge it in time." Goku said genuinely sorry about connecting with the punch but also genuinely surprised it had connected at all.

"What! How? I think you've already proven that I'm way slower than you." He said with no little bit of surprise at Goku.

"You mean you didn't do it on purpose?" Goku asked rhetorically with a little bit of shock present, "Xander when you put your foot in the path of my knee thrust you were moving much faster than before! And where'd you learn to fly? I thought you couldn't and that ki blast was great!"

It was clear from the way the Superman Saiyan was talking, he was greatly pleased and impressed by what Xander had pulled off in the last few moments of the fight. The Xan-man on the other hand was still stuck on **how** he had managed to pull it off in the first place. He hadn't even noticed the increase in speed much less the flying until after firing the energy blast when it conveniently decided to abandon him. It was like his body knew what to do even if his mind didn't which was way freaky since he didn't know how many other surprises it had in store for him.

"If this is the kind of potential you have then there's no way you won't be ready to fight the androids with the rest of us in three years." Goku said before slapping him on the shoulder, "All I need to do is teach you how to fight with more than just your fists and the rest will be a piece of cake."

Almost smiling with pride at the compliment he had received from the top fighter on the planet he promised himself he would work hard every day to live up to the potential this man saw in him.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&


	4. Training Year Two

One Year Later, Two Miles North of the Son Home, 4:00p.m 

"Watch your left flank! You're leaving it open!" Goku yelled a split second before he flashed in and delivered a roundhouse kick that sent Xander skidding along the ground for a few feet before he used his right hand to recover and regain his footing.

Two seconds later, Xander was right in the Son patriarch's face and delivering a combination of kicks, punches and forearm shots that put the premiere defender of Earth on the defensive. While it was true that he wasn't going all out on his student, he was still proud that the visitor to their dimension was managing to do as well as he was. It had been a little over a year since the lessons had begun and during that time, the newest Saiyan to arrive on the planet had progressed by leaps and bounds. While he had originally been quite optimistic about the young man's chances, and had said so after their first lesson, the rate at which the teen's skills had grown exceeded his expectations by quite a bit. By his estimate, the young warrior was easily skilled enough to do quite well in the World's Martial Arts Tournament and maybe even win it. However, he still had a ways to go before he'd be good enough to tackle the likes of the androids if they were anywhere near as powerful as the Trunks from the future had described. That would come with time and practice though, so he decided that after the next exchange of blows he'd move onto the next phase of the training. Xander had already learned all of the martial arts techniques of the Turtle Style and could practice them to perfection on his own time or with Gohan if he wasn't available. Now though, it was time to begin his training in ki manipulation starting with the basics of energy blasts, then flying before finally concluding with using one's life force to reinforce or boost one's own natural strength as well as speed. If the teenager from another dimension learned that at the same rate he learned the martial arts in a year's time he'd be able to start training on his own.

"Stop." He commanded and immediately Xander ceased his offensive before assuming a more casual posture, "Well, I think it's safe to say that you've managed to learn every physical technique I've taught you so now its time to move onto energy based ones."

"Like energy blasts and flying?" Xander asked looking excited at the idea of learning something so flashy and impressive.

"Yeah but don't expect too much too quickly." Goku said, trying to impress on the teen how long it would take to reach levels similar to Krillin or Picollo, "Just like building up muscle, it'll take awhile before you can fly as fast as everyone else or fire a ki blast powerful enough to hurt a warrior like me or Vegeta. So, you ready to begin?"

"I was born ready!" Xander replied confidently with a smirk on his face than was only capable of being used by a Saiyan.

"Well, okay then! First, I'll teach you the basics of ki control since without that you won't be able to do much of anything, much less learn how to fly." Goku stated with optimism as he sat down on the ground cross-legged and motioned Xander to do the same, "First, I want you to relax, let all the stress and tense feelings vanish from within you, then look inside yourself for your hidden power."

He watched as the young man worked to dissipate the tension of battle from his body and clear his mind of any sharp thoughts fighting normally required. About a minute later the teen looked at peace and so the search for the young Saiyan's inner ki began. He could sense Xander searching, the way, his essence flowed through his body like a school of fish looking for food, and when he was confident that the visitor from another dimension had found it he moved on to the next part of the lesson.

"Now, I want you to try and channel some of that hidden power to a point in between your two hands like this." He explained as he put the palms of his hands about a foot apart and created a sphere of energy, "Now, you try."

Nodding once with a focused look in his eyes, Xander brought his hands up and into a position mirroring the one he had just been shown. With a slight creasing of the brows, the teen tried to channel the energy he had found outside of his body and into the form of a sphere. While not entirely visible to untrained eyes, Goku could see the first cracklings of energy emerging from his student's palms and attempting to merge in between them. However, the two currents of energy were coming into conflict with each other when they met and it was making the formation of a sphere harder than it should have been.

"Don't force the energy together, let it flow like water or air. It's an extension of your own soul and will reflect your intentions accordingly." Goku said attempting to help the young man overcome the difficulty he was having with the exercise, "Picture water flowing down two separate pipes before merging together in a sink or bath tub."

Nodding sharply, Xander followed the instructions. Just as the husband of Chi-Chi had expected, the conflict between the two opposing currents dispersed, allowing the ki to merge. In the blink of an eye, a sphere the size of a bowling ball formed and shone brightly. There wasn't any destructive power behind it like the ki blast his student had fired in their first sparring match, but it was still impressive for the teen's first try. He was about to move onto the part where the young man would be able to cause the sphere to fly around him and respond to his mental commands when he spotted someone leaning up against a tree a short distance away.

"Keep practicing that until you can form an energy sphere without so much effort." Goku said as he got to his feet, "In battle, you have to be able to do it in the blink of an eye so I want you to try and work towards that, okay?"

"Sure thing." Xander replied as he let the sphere of light between his hands dissipate before trying again.

With his newest apprentice occupied, Goku walked over towards the visitor by the tree and wondered what the green skinned Namek Picollo was doing here. Their training session wasn't until late this evening when both Xander and Gohan would either be studying, as was the case with Gohan, or helping the Briefs family in Xander's case. Maybe something was wrong, some threat that had popped up, and his former rival had come to him for help.

"What's up, Picollo?" Goku asked softly enough so as not to affect Xander's concentration but loud enough so that the Namek could easily hear him.

"I just came to see how the training was going with Xander." Picollo replied as his eyes shifted to the young Saiyan sitting on the ground a short distance away, "Considering he's your first real student, I was curious to see how good a teacher you'd make."

"Well considering he didn't know much about fighting when we started a year ago I'd say he's doing pretty good. Some of his attacks are a little off, but that'll go away when his confidence in himself goes up a bit more." Goku explained as he too looked at Xander to see how he was doing, "Personally, I think he's come a long way since his first lesson. So either I'm a better teacher than I thought or he's a fighting prodigy."

Picollo muttered something like 'the latter most likely' before asking "How about in two years time? Will he be ready for the androids when they come?"

"If he keeps learning like this he'll be a match for anyone of us for sure!" Goku replied with pride and a little excitement at the prospect of another challenging sparring partner, "It'll be great to have another strong fighter on our side when Gero's androids show up, especially if he can manage to become a Super Saiyan by then."

"You actually think he could manage that by then?" Picollo asked with a raised brow, "Vegeta's stronger than him and a better warrior but he hasn't been able to do it, despite the determined training regime he's locked himself into recently."

"Yeah, but there's trick to the whole thing that makes it a lot easier." Goku said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head, "I tried to tell Vegeta but he just told me to be quiet and stormed off. Xander's a much better student and should take the hint a little better."

Picollo nodded in agreement before deciding that he'd said and heard enough. They set a time at night when they'd meet for their own personal training session before the Namek took to the air to resume his independent training in private and Goku returned to instruction Xander in the basics of ki manipulation.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Capsule Corps HQ, The Next Morning, The Briefs' Laboratory 

"Just put that over there, Xander." Bulma yelled from her seat in front of the main computer.

"Sure thing, Bulma." Xander responded as he carried the large crate he'd brought from the storage area to the spot the aqua blue haired woman had pointed out.

It had pretty much been like this off and on since he first got here. Despite the protests of the Brief family, he had taken it upon himself to do as many chores as he could in order to repay them for giving him a place to stay in this dimension. They even mentioned it whenever he did something particularly difficult or time consuming, but he was **no** freeloader and was going to make sure that he earned everything they gave him. Besides which, thanks to the training he was undergoing with Goku, his strength, speed and stamina were growing by leaps and bounds so the work wasn't all that hard. Apparently, Saiyans could get stronger, a lot stronger, a lot faster than humans could since they could get two to three times the gain in half the amount of time it would take a human to do the same. True, they needed to work themselves to the point of exhaustion as well as eat enough food to feed a small army but you couldn't argue with the results. One example of this was the crate he had just set down. Since, if someone had asked him to carry this from one side of the building to the other a year ago he'd have called them nuts for even suggesting it. Now though it was like carrying a stack of G-Man's books down from the stacks, and by 'books' he meant five of the thickest the Watcher owned. So, all in all, it was really no problem for him to help out around Capsule Corps HQ and it helped familiarize him with this new world since the company was an important part of it.

_Move over Bill Gates! There's a new financial giant at the top of the hill. _He had thought when it had been explained to him just how much money the Briefs family made and how much pull they had with world governments.

While he was by no means as knowledgeable about this world as someone born and raised there, he could pass himself off as a local so long as he wasn't asked any questions about the world's history or about things not commonly discussed over the dinner table. If that happened, he usually did everything he could to either change the subject or find a way to excuse himself from the conversation without drawing unnecessary attention. It didn't always work and a few Capsule Corps employees had already put him in 'the weird friend of the boss' category while others just gave him weird looks from time to time. Still, given to the vicious social atmosphere at Sunnydale High, it was pretty tame treatment as far as he was concerned.

Vegeta, of course, hated the fact that he was doing 'menial labour unbefitting a Saiyan' but since he usually said things like that in the presence of Bulma, the two of them usually wound up getting into a yelling argument, allowing him to slip away unnoticed. Then again, those two argued over the smallest and pettiest things imaginable whenever they got the chance, so he often wondered if there wasn't something more to their mutual annoyance than what was on the surface. After all, the short Saiyan had made it clear he wouldn't tolerate any disrespect and had apparently vaporized people for just pissing him off, never mind doing something worthy of being killed as retaliation. So, why hadn't he blasted Bulma? She certainly raised his blood pressure as well as his ire often enough, and while good people, her parents would certainly cave into whatever demands the prince made if threatened with death. There was the chance that the elder Saiyan just didn't want the extra hassle of forcing people to do what he wanted them to when he could just tolerate the female genius and get them to do it willingly.

_Then again, maybe he actually has… Nah!_ Xander thought as he dismissed the comparison his mind had made between his relationship with Cordy and what was going on between the prince of all Saiyans and the prodigy of the Briefs family.

It was ridiculous to even consider such an idea because the heir to the throne of the Saiyan home world had made it clear he valued strength above else. While Bulma certainly had a strong mind and personality, he seriously doubted that that was what Vegeta had in mind in terms of strength. So, there was no way the man was having romantic ,or at the very least, lusty bunny feelings for the slim genius.

It just wasn't possible.

If that was the case though, then why did he have the distinct feeling that there was a part of his mind that was laughing its head off at him right at that moment.

"So Bulma, what do you plan on doing to fight the androids in two years?" he asked offhand after looking to see if there was anything else in the room that needed to be moved.

"What do you mean? I'm no warrior and would just get myself killed if I tried." Bulma replied a little surprised at his question, "I just plan on doing what I normally do whenever some crazed psycho or killing machine threatens the world: leave it to Goku to do the fighting while I provide support from a safe distance."

"I didn't mean fighting the androids, but you're a scientific genius, aren't you?" he asked wondering why she hadn't caught up with his line of logic yet, "Can't you invent something that could help beat the androids?"

It was as if a light came on in the young woman's head, as though she had never really considered that idea before, and he knew she wanted to know more.

"Like what?" she asked placing her undivided attention on him.

"Well, I heard some stories from Yamcha the other day about some headgear that Vegeta wore when he first came to Earth looking for the Dragonballs." He replied as he put his thoughts into a more coherent form, "Couldn't you rig something up to sense the androids?"

"Unfortunately, the scouter was designed to detect and track organic energy patterns from living beings." Bulma replied pointing out the flaw in his plan, "I have no idea what energy Gero plans on using to power his androids but I doubt it's anything organic. Without a sample to work with, I'd have no way of figuring out what to tune the scouter to at all."

"Well, what if you try going about it another way?" he asked as he played with the problem a bit in his head before spitting out his thoughts, "Make it so that the scouter can sense all known artificial sources of power and then block those signatures from being detected so the only one left would be the power source used by the androids. You could even read through some of Gero's old papers, journals and inventions to see if you can figure out on your own what type of energy he's planning on using with the androids."

"You know, you just might be onto something!" Bulma exclaimed as her scientific mind took Xander's general idea and built on it with her own considerable knowledge of technology, "It would take some serious redesigning of the scouter and I would have to **literally** scan every artificial power source firsthand to get the kind of accuracy I'd need. **OH!** And I'd need to visit the National Institute of Science to go through their archives to get all of Gero's old files and—"

"So you think you can do it by the deadline?" he asked interrupting her so that he could get an answer before she got too far into her science babbling.

"Well, I can't say for sure but I'm willing to give it a shot." She replied with an enthusiastic smile, "Thanks for the idea Xander."

"No problem, 'cause you know there are times when I actually have a good idea or two." He said with mock seriousness and his classic lopsided grin, "Well unless you have something else that needs moving or something I think I'm going to head to the kitchen for a snack."

"Yeah, yeah, see ya." Bulma said absentmindedly as she began to scrawl something onto a notepad she'd picked up.

_Nobody's going to see **her** for **hours!**_ He thought as he fully recognized the signs of a brilliant person about to dive into a new project.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Noon, In Front of the Capsule Corps HQ Building 

"Touch my tail and you **DIE!**" Xander growled as he sensed his stalker for the last Eleven and a half months approach from behind.

Turning around, he saw Yamcha and his cat-something Puar trying to sneak up behind him with a pair of hedge clippers. He knew quite well that the freeloader intended to try and chop off his tail because the idiot had tried it several times before in a pathetic number of variations since the conversation he'd had with Bulma a little under a year ago. Apparently, the tail was more than just a freaky appendage and actually served a purpose on the Saiyan body that was potentially dangerous to the city, if not the world.

According to the young genius, a Saiyan with a tail had a kind of werewolfism thing, but instead of transforming into a wolf-human hybrid, they changed into a King Kong sized monkey. Then the obligatory rampage generally began with much smashing and apparently massive energy blasts from the mouth. Needless to say, none of those present wanted that to happen and with the exception of Vegeta, who just stood in a corner of the room and scowled at him they all recommended that the tail be cut off immediately. However, at the very thought of something happening to his new appendage, he had been overcome with a fierce protectiveness of it and had immediately gotten into a more defendable position. He had then told them in no uncertain terms that he'd be keeping the tail and the first person that tried to chop it off would get the strongest ki blast he could manage right in the face. The Saiyan prince had been interested enough in his reaction to go from a scowl to a raised eyebrow look, even as the others tried to persuade him of the necessity of losing the tail. That had only made him even more determined to keep it and he pointed out that with all the advanced tech they had, there had to be a way to completely predict when full moon or something was going to show up. He said they could just mark the dangerous days/nights on the calendar in the kitchen and he'd remember to stay in and away from the windows during those periods of time.

None of them could argue with this logic.

Except Yamcha, who remained firmly in the 'cut off the tail' camp out of sheer determination and stubbornness.

From that day forward, he'd kept an eye on the calendar and had kept to his promise concerning going out during those dangerous periods in time or going near the windows. Yamcha though, had decided to act on his position despite several tongue-lashings from Bulma and had taken every available opportunity to try and snip off his tail. Some attempts had been downright ridiculous while the others had been actually quite cunning in thought but not quite so good in execution. After eleven months of it though, he was beginning to get seriously annoyed with the scar faced man and was almost willing to try kicking his ass into the nearest hospital for a few months. Nothing serious, of course, since the idiot would likely be of some help during the androids' debut attack, an expendable decoy perhaps, but enough to make the fool think twice about cutting off another person's tail. This attempt in particular only made him doubt the man's intelligence since sneaking up on him in broad daylight with a pair of hedge clippers was hardly sneaky, especially since the sun cast his shadow ahead of him for the young Saiyan to easily see.

"Yeah right!" Yamcha said as he slipped from his 'sneaking' posture into a more natural one, "You might be taking lessons from Goku but I've been fighting alongside him since he was a little kid. You wouldn't last five minutes against me Junior!"

"Oh really?" he asked with a challenging smirk as he imagined just how fun it'd be to put this jackass in his place.

"Really." Yamcha said crossing his arms and glaring at the young Saiyan defiantly.

"Then let's do it! Right here, right now!" Xander said slipping into the same ready position Goku had shown him.

He knew that he was probably being a macho idiot right now and had no real reason to prove himself to this moron, but something in his soul refused to let this loser look down on him for any reason. Sure, the idiot may have been something in the past but if half the stories Krillin and Bulma had told him were true this fool hadn't been any real help in a fight since Vegeta had first come to Earth. Basically, he was a has-been that was trying to hold onto his glory days and looking foolish in the process. Personally, he thought the guy should grow up and find a real job since being a warrior defender of the planet was no longer a possibility for him. Still, he was the new guy on the planet so he'd keep quiet and hope the asshole got a clue sometime soon.

"Like I'd waste my time fighting a rookie." Yamcha said arrogantly as he started to walk away, "Now if you don't mind it's time for a real fighter like myself to get some training in."

"Then how about a warm up!" he yelled as he charged the prick head on determined not to stop until the moron ran for cover or at least was rendered unconscious.

The young man only had time to turn his head before the premiere student of Goku Son slammed a punch right in his jaw. The blow didn't have too much power behind it, but it was enough to take the arrogant man off his feet and through the air to the paved driveway a short distance away. Surprisingly enough, Yamcha did have some skill as he quickly regained his footing and just as the Xan-man had wanted the 'experienced' warrior was quick to accept the formal challenge. With an initial kick blocked, the fight was on in all its fury with both fighters looking to dominate the other completely in order to prove their superiority, or at least their competency. Back and forth across the front lawn they went and sometimes managing to leap onto the roof of the building, since both had enough muscle strength in their legs to make it without having to tap into their ki. For a time it was actually rather even with both of them getting in a decent shot every once in awhile with all others being blocked or evaded. Eventually though Yamcha got pissed that someone who had only been training for a year was managing to keep pace with him and after taking to the air fired a ki blast at Xander.

To this situation, most newly trained warriors, especially those just learning about ki manipulation in general, never mind the more advanced techniques, this would be the time to evade the blast with all available speed. For Xander though, the need to prove himself to this prick was still firmly in control and so he decided to respond to the fool's attack with one of his own. The only difference would be that he'd do one better and attempt to perform an attack he had seen Goku demonstrate after it had been proven he could form an energy sphere without difficulty. Lowering his body into the correct posture, he brought both hands behind him at his hip and began to channel his ki as he had been shown but at a higher level of intensity. With a flash of light the energy began to collect between his palms and just as Yamcha's blast reached the point of no return, the Xan-man executed his attack.

"KA-ME-HA-ME-HAAAAAA!" he yelled as he thrust his arms forward and fired a massive ki blast at the surprised Yamcha.

It wasn't nearly as refined or perfected as Goku's with the fraying at the edges of the blast showing that it was just barely being kept in the form of a column with some energy bits flaking off the main blast before dissipating. However, it had the desired effect of stopping Yamcha's own blast and forced the fool himself to dodge the rough column of bluish white energy instead. The twit was so shocked that he actually came back down to terra firma and the Xan-man was just about to take advantage of this opportunity when a truly dominating force showed up to stop him.

"WHAT IN KAMI'S NAME ARE YOU TWO **DOING!?**" Bulma yelled with the mother of all 'Looks' on and managing to be more intimidating than an army of pissed off Slayers.

"Just a… light sparring session Bulma." He replied trying to sound like they hadn't done anything really bad.

"Light?! **LIGHT!?** The whole city must have seen that last energy blast!" she yelled clearly not impressed or convinced by his response to her first inquiry.

Not wanting to be the only one to take the fall he quickly pointed an accusing finger at the sneaking away Yamcha.

"Well Yamcha started it, Bulma. He was trying to cut **my TAIL** off **AGAIN**!" he said angrily as he gave the jerk a glare that promised pain if he tried it one more time.

"Yamcha! We've been over this a hundred times already!" Bulma said focusing her female 'Look' on the scarred man, "As long as Xander promises to stay inside during the nights when he's most at risk of transforming he can keep his tail! Why can't you accept that?!"

"It's too much of a risk Bulma!" Yamcha yelled back trying to sound resolute and confident in his position but failing miserably, "You know how it was with Goku. One look at a full moon, real or fake, and it's monkey city! Besides I don't see what the big deal is since Goku's managed to get along just fine without his tail."

"The 'big deal' is that we only cut off Goku's tail **after** he'd changed because we **had to** in order to keep from being squashed." Bulma replied shooting down her ex-boyfriend's feeble reasons, "Xander's already promised to take every precaution to keep from changing, so until he breaks that promise I'm not about to let you or anyone else cut his tail off because of something that **might** happen!"

"But Bulma—" Yamcha tried to say but he was interrupted before he could get anything more out of his mouth.

"Forget it! Come on Xander!" she said as she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him towards the garage where her hover car was stored, "We have to get you to Goku's place in time for your lesson!"

With that said. all that there was left to do was for the three people to go their chosen ways and follow their plans for the day. However, one person, someone that had observed the entire fight right up to the interruption by the damn woman, was busy thinking about the impressive leap in progress the young Saiyan had made entirely on his own.

"Perhaps I underestimated the boy." Vegeta thought before he re-entered the spaceship where he'd been training under three hundred times Earth's normal gravity.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&


	5. The Beginning of Year Three

The Front of Capsule Corps HQ, One Year Later 

"See ya later, Bulma!" Xander yelled back into the dome shaped house as he stepped out the door, "I'll be back by supper time and I promise to stop by that warehouse to pick up the parts you asked me to get for you."

"Thanks Xander!" came the green haired genius' voice from inside the building but almost impossible to hear considering how far inside she was at the moment.

With that he fired up his ki field and shot into the sky heading towards the Son home where he knew Gohan would be waiting for him. It had been this way for about a month now, ever since he had shown enough skill with ki manipulation to perform all the basics, and ever since it had been him and the son of Goku sparring and training together. It had been refreshing to fight someone new while the top Saiyan on this world trained with Piccolo. While he hadn't done so well the first week or so, the two of them were about equal at the moment in terms of skill and strength. While he had certainly made surprisingly rapid progress in his lessons, Gohan had the edge in experience between the two of them and his smaller size made him harder to pin down. Fortunately, his experience in fighting demons back in Sunnydale that had the same edge on him allowed him to keep himself in the fight and sometimes even score a series of decent hits. Of course, Gohan would improve as well and he'd be back to being on the defensive for awhile until he came up with a combination of moves that would expose a hole in the kid's defenses.

_Not that they're easy to exploit when I do find them. _He thought as he passed the over the last sign of civilization.

The kid definitely took after his old man in the fighting department. While it was clear the boy had learned most of his moves from Piccolo, his endurance and determination were definitely traits he inherited from his father. No matter how hard he managed to hit the kid (within reason for training of course) he always came back for more. Come back for more and dish out blows that left the native of Sunnydale a mess of bruises afterwards. That kid packed a mean wallop for someone so small, he even managed to hit a bit harder when he got pissed for some reason. Then again, according to Goku, all Saiyans seemed to reach higher than normal power levels when they got angry but like you'd expect, it didn't last very long. Like the emotion itself, the energy boost eventually wore itself out, leaving a person feeling drained, which equaled vulnerable in a fast paced fight.

He learned that early on when Gohan started seriously pouring it on making it almost impossible to go on the offensive. Defense required his complete concentration. He'd been so mad that someone years younger than him was dominating him that he'd let it all out and started to really go all out to the point where he started taking hits and ignoring the pain rather than blocking or evading them. While it did allow him to go on the offensive he couldn't manage it for long and eventually both the pain from his wounds as well as the rapid consumption of ki left him barely able to stay in the air. Fortunately for him, Gohan quickly realized this and didn't take advantage of him by going on the attack.

_Yeah! Gohan was nice enough to go easy on me but it's too bad I can't say the same about Chi Chi!_ He thought with a shudder as he recalled how the matriarch of the Son home reacted when she saw her son after the training was done that day_, Times like that I completely understand how Goku could be afraid of that woman._

In any case, today would be something completely free of violence for the most part and therefore would give nothing for Chi Chi Son to blow a fuse over. Today's regimen was a slightly weirder version of tag in which the two of them would take turns hiding. They would hide physically as well as their ki signature and the other would have to find the hidden one. He had come up with the idea when he started wanting to hone his ki sensing ability as best he could. He started to try and think up a training exercise that could do that while not get him in trouble with Mrs. Son. Amazingly, it took him about an hour to come up with the tag concept but from there the details fell into place rather nicely. All that they would need to do is land one blow on the person hiding to change things around. It didn't have to be a hard blow but it couldn't be a light tap either. After all, this was training for combat and no android would be impressed with just a light tap on the shoulder. By making it a blow the move used to hit the person in hiding could possibly be employed in actual battle just by upping the power behind it by quite a bit.

_At least in theory that's how it should work._ He thought with a slight frown as he passed over a heavily forested area, _Guess I'll just have to wait and see how it works in practice._

Continuing his flight towards the Son home, he let his mind work on a few moves he thought might let him get in tagging blows on Gohan. By the time he finally arrived and saw the kid standing out in his yard, he knew he had at least five guaranteed methods for nailing the boy. The other ways he came up with were iffy and left things up to chance but they were still worth a shot at least. With the same ease a person would walk down the stairs with, he touched down in front of the half-Saiyan kid with an 'I am looking forward to this' smile.

"You been waiting long?" he asked.

"Nah! Just sensed you coming and got ready." Gohan replied shaking his head to imply that it was no big deal, "So you ready for that tag training you talked about?"

"Sure but let's have a nice warm up spar first and then we'll play some tag." He replied figuring that a good warm up would be nice before getting serious, "Let's head a bit farther north so we don't bother your mom or anything."

"'Kay." Gohan said and with only enough pause to give a polite 'goodbye' to Chi-Chi (just to be on the safe side) the two of them took off towards the mountains.

Little did either of them realize that Xander had been followed and that his shadow had managed to escape the ki sensing abilities of both he and Gohan.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Thirty Minutes Later, North of the Son Home 

_What a ridiculous training method!_ Vegeta thought as he watched from his surveillance spot within the forest, _He's wasting his time with this pathetic child's game._

Frowning in disapproval, he continued to follow the mindless back and forth pursuit that was going on between Kakarott's brat and Xander. It was disappointing to him that the new Saiyan, who he was forced to admit had some potential, was abandoning time honored methods of training for something better left to children.

For the past year, he had been covertly following the boy to his training sessions with Kakarott and then observed the teenage Saiyan's sparring with the brat. Covering up his absences from the enhanced gravity chamber by saying he needed more room for his next bit of training he had tailed the boy off and on for months. While he hadn't initially believed that the boy had been making the sort of progress Kakrott had claimed during his random visits to that Woman's house, twenty separate observational missions proved otherwise. Day by day the boy improved until he became as strong as he had been after eating that sickening Senzu bean in order to recover from the beating he'd been handed by Recoom. An impressive amount of progress but he was still inferior to the Prince of all Saiyans and that he believed because both Kakarot and his brat had been coddling the boy.

Neither the clown or his brat were pulling their punches, but neither of them were pushing the kid as hard as they should be in order to get the necessary results. They always stopped for a break the moment Xander showed the first signs of fatigue rather than pushing the boy to increase his stamina and endurance by fighting on. At this rate the boy would be lucky to reach the Namek's level by the time the androids showed up in a year's time. That just wouldn't do.

As a member of a superior warrior race, even the weakest Saiyan should stand leagues above every other species in the galaxy as a warrior. While he had no wish to have **another** rival for the position of strongest warrior in the galaxy, he actually thought it might be nice to have a worthy second in command. If his suspicions were correct, and he had no reason to think they weren't, then Xander may very well be a member of the Saiyan Elite. While the genetic testing done by the Woman's relative had conclusively confirmed that the boy **was** a Saiyan there had been no further revelations about Xander's origins. Where was he from? What family did he belong to? How did he survive the destruction of the Saiyan homeworld? These were questions that had been fluttering around inside his head ever since the boy was confirmed to physically be a Saiyan. With the teenager being utterly clueless about his past, all the Saiyan Prince could do was watch the boy carefully and draw his own conclusions.

_There's no way he could be getting this strong this fast unless he's one of the Saiyan Elite._ He thought with a certainty watching the target of his thoughts carefully, _No Saiyan Elite should be making a mockery of himself like this!_

His anger was growing to the point where he could no longer stand by anymore and watch the boy disgrace himself any further he decided it was time for someone who actually knew what they were doing to begin training the boy. First though, he intended to show this teenage Saiyan just how useless and foolish his current training method was before deigning to offer Xander a place as his apprentice. For minutes, he waited for the right opportunity and grinned when he saw the perfect chance to obliterate this insult of a training exercise.

Using superior tactical thinking as well as speed, he zipped between the trees until he arrived at what he deduced would be the brat's hiding spot where he intended to conceal himself from Xander. There he waited until he could sense the brat was about to pass by him and lashed out with a precise blow to Gohan's neck, rendering the kid unconscious instantly. With smug satisfaction he hid the brat in some nearby bushes and then went about setting the bait that would lure the boy to him. It would be almost too easy to let his ki spike a bit, just enough to register on the kid's novice senses, but not enough to tip him off to who was there. It took a few moments but eventually he could sense Xander on the approach and so he prepared to launch his ambush.

_Just a little more… just a little closer… NOW!_ He thought and in the space between thoughts he shot out from beneath the cover provided by the forest and charged the young Saiyan above him head on.

"Wha--?" was all the boy could get out before the fist of the sole surviving member of Saiyan royalty slammed into his jaw.

"A word of advice, Xander! A true Saiyan never lets their guard down and most certainly never wastes their time playing such ridiculous games!" he yelled at the kid as he watched the teenager fly backwards before he managed to recover.

"What the **hell** do you think you're **doing,** Vegeta?!" Xander asked with a voice mixed of both anger and surprise.

"Educating a Saiyan youth on proper training methods." He replied with a Saiyan grin before charging the boy once again.

This time, the boy was smart enough to defend himself. For the next five minutes straight, Vegeta went on the offensive, increasing the speed and strength of his attacks at random when he felt that the pressure was going down in the boy. Most of the boy's moves were easily recognizable as belonging to Kakarott but there were some original moves that might have been effective against a lesser warrior. What pleased him the most was the fire he could see in Xander's eyes, a fire that was burning brighter and brighter with every exchange of blows, one that embodied the teen's Saiyan spirit. Unlike that clown of a common Saiyan, this warrior possessed a desire to defeat his enemy and would do anything to achieve that victory short of injuring his pride. No matter what Kakarott had managed in his life, he had always been bound by that foolish notion of fair play and honor. That had been the reason Freeza had managed to survive Namek, he was certain of it, and if that clown had just made sure that monster was dead there would have been no reason to worry about the tyrant coming to Earth ever. Xander though, he felt had a better grasp of fighting and how a warrior should act with only a lack of experience keeping him from tossing away what was left of his childish behavior.

_A few months training with me ought to take care of that quite nicely!_ He thought as he slammed the heel of his boot into the boy's jaw.

Seeing the boy begin to fall, he was somewhat surprised when the kid suddenly righted himself and without pause began to fire off ki blasts in rapid succession. Like a directed meteor shower, they came at him and after he shook off his initial surprise, he grinned at the boy's determination as he flitted between the blasts. While each blast was potent and flying through the air at acceptable speeds they were nothing a warrior of his stature couldn't handle. Crossing his arms across his chest he used his ki to move about and placed a cocky Saiyan grin on his face that he knew would only serve to infuriate the kid even more. He had figured that seeing this would provoke the kid into abandoning this tactic and trying something else but as a minute or two passed without change he began to grow impatient.

"Is this really all you can do boy?" he asked putting quite a bit of contempt into his voice, "Is this all you've learned training under that fool Kakarot?"

"I might have learned a few more interesting things." Xander replied as his look of angry determination shifted to a confident grin the Prince of all Saiyans often wore.

Baffled by this explained change in attitude he wondered what it could be that would make the kid this cocky when none of his shots had hit him. It took his superior Saiyan strategic sense to deduce the reason and he whipped his head around to see that almost all of the shots that the kid had fired at him were hovering in mid-air behind him. When he had dodged them initially he had assumed that they would just continue on their standard trajectory until they dispersed on their own. He had not thought the boy capable of this level of control over his ki blasts and because he had underestimated the boy, he was vulnerable. One second after he laid his eyes on the spheres of energy, they flew at him swiftly as though they had minds of their own and if they impacted it would not be pleasant. Unfortunately for the boy, he had underestimated the heir to the throne of the Saiyan people as well and with a flare of light Vegeta erected a ki field around his body that not only stopped the spheres but also kept them from detonating.

Once all the spheres had been caught in his ki field he let out a roar of defiance as he repelled them from his position scattering them about the surrounding landscape. They looked like exploding firecrackers from the altitude he was at and while not concerned about the safety of the brat he noticed that all the spheres missed the spot where the clown's son lay unconscious.

"Interesting tactic, but you'll have to do better if you expect to make any progress against a **real** warrior." He said as he turned back to the boy who looked angry that his plan hadn't worked, "Let's see if you can handle a more direct attack!"

Bringing both his hands behind him, Vegeta began to channel energy down his arms to charge the attack he intended to unleash. It was a move he hadn't used in a long while and wasn't the most powerful in his arsenal but it would suffice to see if the boy could handle something like this. Tempering the energy level of the attack, making sure that even if it wound up hitting the boy it wouldn't kill him, he flung his hands forward with the palms facing the boy.

"_**Galick Gun: FIRE!!**_" he yelled as he launched the attack down towards the boy's position.

With a flash of purple light, the ki blast shot down towards the boy like a raging river of energy that would impact on the kid in seconds. A smile actually appeared on his face since not only was Xander not attempting to evade the attack but it looked like the boy was actually going to try and counter it with one of his own. He needed to see only the first second or two of movement for him to know what technique the boy was going to perform. Considering he had been taught by Kakarott it was no surprise that he would use this to counter the Galick Gun but later, when he instructed the boy, he would have to make sure the kid came up with a signature move of his own. No sense having Xander rely on that move when there were so many better ones he could imitate or even a technique he could invent on his own.

"KA-ME-HA-ME-HAAAA!!!" Xander yelled with an arm thrust of his own. He fired off a passable imitation of Kakarot's signature attack.

Bluish white beam of ki energy struck purplish white and with a flash the two forces began to fight for dominance over the other. It was impressive that the boy's blast was able to keep his own in place for even a few seconds but when ten seconds had passed his Galick Gun blast began to inch closer and closer to Xander. There was strain on the boy's face implying that he was putting forth great effort to push the purple ki blast back the other way but all he was managing to do was slow its advance towards him a bit. This of course didn't stop the kid from trying and it was not until the point of conflict between the two ki blasts was almost upon the boy that he stopped and moved with all the speed he could muster out of the way. It was obvious to Vegeta's eyes that while the boy was trying to conceal his fatigue, the effort of trying to go toe-to-toe with the Prince of all Saiyans had taken a toll on him. However, unlike that clown Kakarott, he was not going to back off and allow the boy to recover his strength but rather he was going to press the kid even more.

"Hope you're not too tired, boy, because this battle's just beginning to get interesting!" he yelled before kicking his ki level up another notch .

Then without warning, he shot ahead with a burst of speed that allowed him to cross the distance between his position and Xander's in what had to appear to be the blink of an eye to the boy. Giving the kid only enough time to look surprised, he delivered a powerful punch to the boy's sternum, knocking the air out of his lungs. Then as a follow up, he delivered a double axe handle smash to the kid's back, sending him flying to the ground at high speed. This time, Xander did not recover in time and hit the ground with a bang, sending dirt into the air, momentarily obscuring everything for fifteen feet around him.

When the debris settled, Vegeta could see that the boy had managed to get back to his feet and was looking up at him with anger and a **need** to defeat him. He understood that need all too well, it was the very same need he felt whenever he saw Kakarot take another leap forward in power and skill. To him it was maddening, since it was he who was Royalty, he who should be the strongest, whereas that **clown** was nothing more than a commoner. This need that Xander now felt would drive him to push himself harder than he otherwise would and it would be all the incentive the Saiyan Elite would need to agree to continue training with him rather than Kakarot's son. He would mould the boy into what a true Saiyan should be like and at long last find a worthy replacement for Nappa as his partner.

_That should make the future quite __**interesting**__ indeed! _He thought as he watched a flaming ki field surround Xander before the boy shot upwards into the air and head right for him, _Most interesting._

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Capsule Corps HQ, Late Evening, Xander's Room 

_Bastard! Where does he get off attacking me like that!?_ Xander thought with a wince as he lay in his bed remembering his unscheduled fight with Vegeta.

The day had started off so well, a plan in the head and a determination to get better, then without warning the Prince of all Assholes shows up and use him as a punching bag. He didn't go down quietly though, not a chance in hell, but he still had gone down and only some hastily provided senzu beans had him lying in bed with temporary bruises rather than permanent injuries. He'd been so pissed after the recuperative properties of the senzu bean had done its job that he'd been ready right then and there to shoot off after Mr. Vegetable Head for some payback. Only a restraining hand of Goku and a little common sense on the part of Gohan had persuaded him to wait for his retribution. They'd pointed out that while recovering from serious injuries did increase a Saiyan's strength by quite a bit he was still nowhere near where he'd have to be in order to hold his own against Vegeta. As frustrating as it was to admit it, they were right. He had gotten a taste of the power that the arrogant prick possessed and could not deny that his own strength was nowhere near that at the moment.

That would have to change.

He'd double his training regime and maybe even sneak in to the asshole's ship to use the enhanced gravity chamber when the jerk wasn't around. He'd heard stories about how much Goku's strength had increased from training in there and figured it could do the same for him. Yeah, he'd sneak in there every chance he got and before that bastard knew it he'd be eating knuckle burgers morning, noon and night! Until then, he'd do the best he could to avoid the little shit head and train like mad every spare moment he could find. True, it'd likely mean he wouldn't be around Capsule Corps very often to help out the Brief family but they had already said several times that he didn't need to pay them back for living there so all he'd be doing is taking advantage of that. There'd be plenty of time to pay them back for their hospitality after he'd paid Vegetable head for the beating he'd dealt out.

Rolling over to his right side, which was only slightly less tender than his left, he decided that sleep would be best for now and then first thing at dawn tomorrow he'd start training for operation 'hand Vegeta his ass'.

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Sunrise, Outside Capsule Corps 

_Looks like now's my chance!_ He thought as he used a combination of his own leg muscles and his ki to zip across the front lawn towards the spherical space ship, _Time to get an hour or two of gravity training before the king of mean wakes up._

Upon reaching the door, he quickly typed in the access code he'd acquired from Mr. Briefs under the pretence of it being a good idea to have another person around capable of opening the ship in case of an emergency. Cringing as the door to the ship opened up louder than he'd intended, he quickly leapt inside and closed the door behind him. Looking around he took in the interior of the ship for the first time and while he couldn't say he approved of the décor, it was definitely impressive looking from a technological standpoint. According to Dr. Briefs, this ship was capable of traveling just about anywhere in the galaxy provided it had enough fuel on board to make the trip. Add to that an enhanced gravity system that could go up to five hundred times Earth's normal gravity and it was pretty much an ideal means of transportation for a Saiyan. While he might one day be interested in taking a trip through space, for now all he wanted was to train and get strong enough so that one day he could kick Vegeta's ass as payback for that sneak attack the other day.

_Hmmmm, starting at fifty Gs should be okay. _He thought as he walked over to the control panel in the centre of the room, _Then I'll up it by about fifteen Gs next time and keep pushing it up until the day those androids show up. Who knows if that hint Goku gave me the last time we sparred will actually work once I get strong enough on my own._

Activating the artificial gravity generators he waited until he could hear them hum at a fairly constant level and then punched in the level of Gs he wanted. The increase in downward pull was almost instantaneous and so surprised was he by the sudden difference between normal gravity and fifty Gs he was almost brought to his knees. However, his stubborn determination not to let something like this get the better of him he stopped himself just before he would have passed the point of no return and forced himself to stand up all the way. Feeling this increased gravity for the first time he could easily see how Goku and then Vegeta had managed to get so strong so fast using it during their respective training sessions. It was like getting some weight training in while at the same time working on technique and speed. Best of all, it didn't require that he strap large weights to his limbs in order to get the best of both areas at once. With that in mind he stepped away from the control panel to get some room and then fell into the beginning stance of the katas that Goku had shown him.

It took less than half an hour before he began to feel the burn from the exercises and the exertion but to his surprise he actually liked it. It meant that he was getting stronger and if that was indeed the case then he could endure some **minor** discomfort if it meant that he was taking one step closer to surpassing Vegeta. Once the katas were done a satisfactory number of times, he moved on to chi control by generating a sphere of energy and then manipulating it at greater and greater speeds as well as performing complex aerial patterns. It was a slight modification of the technique he'd used on Vegeta back during their unscheduled sparring session since this version was meant to be able to follow a target no matter where they went. The other one, the one that he employed was simply willing the blasts he had fired to changed direction once by reversing course and while impressive, it would be limited in battle to a target with low agility.

If his enemy was quicker and could move around better then just reversing course, it wouldn't do it at all. So he worked towards being able to control his energy sphere to the point where he could make it follow his target no matter where it went or how fast it was going. Unfortunately, as far as energy attacks went this was pretty much the most he could do in the confined area of the ship since anything more ran the risk of blowing a wrecking ball sized hole in it. Still, he was able to practice flying inside the spherical room and with the enhanced gravity on he had to work many times harder to stay in the air than he normally would outside in the open air. Also, the limited space was greater for fine-tuning his ability for sudden direction changes since he figured these androids had to be pretty fast and precise themselves if they'd managed to kill off the rest of the Z fighters in the alternate future.

For two hours straight, he went at it but when he spotted on the clock on the wall that his two hours was almost up he decided it'd be best to turn everything off and make himself scarce before old vegetable head woke up and spotted him using 'his' training room. Touching down in front of the control panel he set the Gs back to one and then shut down the artificial gravity generators back off. Once done, he made a quick inspection of the room to make sure he hadn't left any visible signs that he'd been there before heading to the door and opening it up. What he saw standing outside of the ship with arms crossed across his chest however froze him on the spot and gave a distinct feeling of impending pain.

"Just what do you think you're doing in **my** gravity gym?" asked Vegeta, who was visibly **unhappy** but speaking in an unusually calm voice.

"Just getting some training in while you weren't using it." He replied figuring any lie he could come up with in the space of a few seconds wouldn't fool this arrogant prick one little bit.

"I don't recall giving you permission to use it. How **dare** you step into my training area without my approval!?" Vegeta yelled, no longer trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

"It's not **your** training area Vegeta! This ship and everything on it belongs to the Brief family **not you!**" he yelled back since he theorized that the cocky Saiyan might actually respect the fire-with-fire approach, "At least I'm actually **earning** the right to use this ship by helping them out once and awhile! All you do is sleep in their beds, eat their food and demand they make things as though you're the ruler of this world rather than that field of debris that used to be planet Vegeta!"

"How dare **YOU!?** How dare you insult our home world and your Prince!?" Vegeta yelled looking like the only think keeping him from attacking was that he considered Xander beneath him.

"First of all, Earth is my home as far as that goes and as for you being my prince, I don't recall **ever** swearing an oath of loyalty to you!" he yelled back no longer heeding the voice of caution warning him that pissing off the man in front of him wasn't the smart thing to do at the moment, "Why don't you just get it through your thick head Vegeta!? You're not a prince anymore! You're not a king! Any claim you had to those titles went KA-BOOM with the Saiyan homeworld!! Right now you're no different from me or Goku!! Understand!?"

That last statement was apparently the wrong thing to say because with the mention of the Saiyan Goku any restraint that Vegetable Head might have possessed vanished. In the blink of an eye he found his lungs seriously lacking in the oxygen department and a fist buried deep into his gut. Fortunately, both problems were quickly remedied since the force of the punch sent him flying backwards into the ship and the sudden impact with the interior wall knocked his lungs back online. Sucking in the air as though his life depended on it he struggled to his hands and knees determined to strike back just as soon as his body had the strength to do so. He could sense Vegeta entering the ship and when the sounds of the door to the ship closing reached his ears his shock prompted him to look up in that direction to find out what was going on.

"I may no longer have a home world anymore Xander but **I am STILL** the Prince of all Saiyans!! That title is more than just words on a page or the kingdom that comes with it. It's blood, **royal** blood, that courses through my veins and justifies my right to rule!" Vegeta said as he stroke regally over to the down displace denizen of Sunnydale, "Apparently you need a strong reminder of why my family ruled over the Saiyan people for over a thousand years. I was just recently planning on leaving this mud ball of a planet to do some training in space, away from all the distractions around here. So guess who's coming along for the ride?"

"V-Vegeta!!" he managed to growl out as he tried to get to his feet and put a stop to the unscheduled field trip before it had a chance to begin.

"Don't bother thanking me. Unlike that fool Kakarott, you actually appear to have some Saiyan spirit in you and you're definitely smarter than he is." Vegeta said with that maddening Saiyan grin on his face, "You should have more respect for your betters! You should be grateful that you'll get getting superior training from me at all! Until then, rest up! Say **good night!**"

With nothing more than a blur as a warning the darkness of unconsciousness was forced on him.

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	6. The Big Day Arrives

_**Capsule Corps Sphere Ship, En Route to Earth, One Year Later, **_

One Hour Before the Androids' Predicted Arrival Time 

"If we get there to find everyone already dead Vegeta, you can look forward to being the first person I kill one second later." Xander growled as he sat in his seat watching the screen in front of him display the stars flying by the ship.

"You could try, Xander, you could try," Vegeta responded with that infuriating cocky grin of his from his own seat with arms crossed over his chest. "However I seem to recall that in all the time I trained you, not once have you managed to beat me in a sparring match."

"You only won because I didn't want to listen to your griping about losing to someone like me," he shot back with a look that implied he was beginning to think his decision had been a mistake.

Naturally, in his arrogance, Prince Vegeta of the Saiyan race ignored his statement since he was convinced now more than ever of his supreme status among the few remaining Saiyans. Seeing the guy's ego growing with every passing hour, Xander almost wished that he hadn't tipped Vegetable Head off about the trick to the Super Saiyan transformation. The prick would still probably have managed to pull it off through sheer determination but not anywhere near as soon as he had and, thus, wouldn't have such a big head at the moment. However what was done was done and there was no sense bitching and complaining over something that couldn't be changed. For now, all that could be focused on was the coming battle with the androids and how it would be handled now that there'd be two more Super Saiyans on the battlefield. With him, Vegeta and Goku on the side of the good guys, it would put the odds decidedly in their favour since in that Future Kid's timeline there was at the very most only one to face the machines when they appeared. Still there was one niggling fact that was bothering him and that he was currently trying to find a way to get rid of.

_Ahhhh! I'll think about it more later when I actually have to._ He thought to himself as he felt the ship's hyper-drive disengage and turn propulsion over to the sub-light engines, _We'll be landing in a few minutes and then we gotta make tracks for that island Future Kid mentioned so we don't miss the fight._

Looking at the screen displaying the forward exterior of the ship, he could see the various planets in the solar system pass them by. Most he was able to recognise from his science classes but there was one or two that he couldn't quite put a name to. In the end, though, it didn't matter since about thirty seconds into his planet bee Earth appeared on the screen and was getting closer by the second. With this in mind, he took a look at the clock that had been set to match the clocks at Capsule Corps headquarters and found that it was just a few minutes before ten in the morning. This bothered him greatly since it meant that even if they went to max power and hauled ass to the island, they'd probably be at least twenty minutes late.

_All because __**vegetable head**__ over there wanted to get another two hours of training in!_ Xander thought as the expression on his face turned into a scowl of impatience, _Not that it did him much good in the end as far as I can tell!_

In truth, the two of them had reached a plateau of sorts in their training in outer space that despite a training session that lasted almost a full twenty-four hours, he had not been able to find a way around. Vegeta believed this meant that they had reached the pinnacle of Saiyan power and that no one would be able to defeat them from here on out. Thanks to the fact that he wasn't cursed with an oversized ego, Xander wasn't so blind that he accepted that and knew that there had to be higher levels of power to be attained. Saiyans, in his mind, had almost limitless battle potential because their bodies were designed to become stronger the more the endured battle-like conditions, a fact which would be able to explain the jumps in power they received after recovering from a near fatal injury as well as their rate of progress during training. These facts told him that a Saiyan could continue increasing in strength until their bodies could no longer contain the power it generated and since he did not feel like he was about to burst at the seams, he knew there had to be more. However it would take more time than they had to make any significant progress so he would have to put a hold on exploring his theory further until after the battle was won.

As the ship finally passed through the upper atmosphere of the planet and the crimson glow of atmospheric friction faded, he knew it was time to get into something a little more presentable than the rags he was currently wearing. They had departed from the lifeless planetoid almost immediately following the conclusion of their final training session and, in his fatigue, he had decided getting changed could wait. Now, though, they were about to land on Earth and he'd be damned before he'd walk out of this craft looking like some destitute street bum. There were a few of Vegeta's usual Saiyan outfits still in storage but he wasn't going to wear one of those, or at least he wasn't going to wear all of the pieces. He'd wear the bodysuit, the gloves and the boots but instead of wearing the armor he'd put the pants as well as shirt that looked like they came from Goku's wardrobe. He'd never been able to satisfactorily figure out how it got on board the ship but he figured that Mr. Briefs must have put it there when he finished building the ship in anticipation of Goku using it sooner or later. In any case, by combining elements of both Vegetable Brain's clothes as well as Goku's, he'd achieve the double effect of pissing off the Prince of all Saiyans and creating an original look for himself.

Five minutes later he was ready to go and it was a good thing he was too since, if the slight tremor of impact he felt was any hint, then they had finally touched down on solid ground. Climbing up the stairs from the ship's living quarters, he could see that Vegeta too had changed into a cleaner and non-tattered version of his usual outfit. The moment Vegetable Head looked in his direction, though, he was overcome with the desire to find a camera of some kind because the look on the Prince's face was priceless. From where he was standing, it looked like the prick didn't know whether to slam his head into the wall a couple of times or drag him back to the living quarters to change into a set of his clothes. In the end, though, with the clock ticking, it looked like Vegeta wasn't willing to suffer a delay in his imminent confrontation with the androids or showing off his new level of power. Personally Xander thought it was more the latter than the former since the Prince definitely put the perceptions of others ahead of threats to a planet he barely called home. That was one thing that set the two of them apart big time: he would never allow himself to become so caught up in stroking his own ego to neglect his duty to protect the innocent.

_Of course I __**couldn't possibly**__ be held accountable if I get a little carried away __**by accident,**__ right?_ Xander thought as he recalled the few times he'd been more focused on enjoying the fight than minding his surroundings during training, _After all, that's more Saiyan genetics than an actual choice right? I can't be blamed if my Saiyan fighting genes get the better of me from time to time._

"Let's go. By now the weaklings should be weeded out, leaving only Kakarot, the Namek and the androids to deal with," Vegeta declared as he pressed the button to lower the door/stairs. "Just stay out of my way, do as you're told and maybe I'll leave you whoever's left to play with. Understand?"

"Of course Vegeta. Whatever you say," Xander said more because he wanted to move things along rather than actually meaning what he was saying.

"Of course **WHAT?**" Vegeta said with a little anger as well as implying that his training partner for the last year had forgotten to say something important just then.

It took about three seconds for him to remember and he instantly wished that he'd never questioned the prick's royal rights in the first place. Aside from the actual training in space, the Prince of all Saiyans had also done his best to pound his royal status into the young Harris' head. This had gone on for weeks until he finally decided that indulging the idiot and playing along with Shorty's ego was the better choice for the time being. From that day on he had always called Vegetable Head 'Prince Vegeta' or 'Sire' or something that sounded like the proper way to address royalty. It had been annoying in the extreme to do but it made the training sessions go easier and kept Vegeta from pounding him into paste in a fit of rage. He had hoped that when they finally returned to Earth that he would be able to stop since he no longer required Vegeta's help training-wise or the spaceship that only he knew how to use.

_Looks like the asshole isn't willing to let me go that easily!_ He thought angrily as he debated whether or not to bend to the moron's demand, _While it leaves the sewer taste in my mouth every time I say it the jackass will only keep at it if I don't. Better wait until we hook up with Goku and the others, 'cause at least then I'll have back up._

"Of course, **my prince.**" Xander said, managing only just to keep his anger from coming out in his voice.

"Then let's get going." Vegeta said and, with that, he brought his ki flame to bear and shot through the open spaceship door into the open sky.

_One day soon Vegeta! One day soon I'll shove those cocky words right down your scrawny throat!_ He thought as he powered up his ki field and followed 'his prince'.

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_**A Range of Rocky Outcroppings Several Miles West of Where the Androids Appeared**_

One Hour Later 

"Something is wrong here. Goku is rushing his blows and starting to get sloppy in executing his attacks." Xander said as he watched the battle between Goku and one of the androids from a nearby concentration of rocky outcroppings.

"Indeed." Was all Vegeta said in response with his eyes never leaving the focal point of the battle within range of their Saiyan eyes.

They had been about halfway to the city that the kid from the future had stated would be the debut point for the pair of androids that would supposedly lay waste to the world when they'd both seen the first wisps of smoke and a spike in ki energy. Both of them picked up the pace a bit and arrived just in time to see three ki trails streaking off in a westerly direction with two small dots following close behind. Not wanting to be noticed, Vegeta ordered him to lower his ki level considerably to avoid being detected by either side before they followed the group of five. This made it harder to keep up but thankfully they managed to arrive at the battlefield in time to see the kick off exchange of blows. While some might have decided to join Piccolo and the others, he as well as Vegeta decided to hang back in order to watch the battle unobserved. After all, if these androids were strong enough to wipe out the entire team of Z-fighters then it could increase his chances of survival immensely by learning their moves and tactics.

So for the past five minutes he had stood atop his own shabby pillar of rock and watched each exchange of blows between Goku and the android carefully. For the first three minutes of the fight it had seemed that the fight would be over before anyone else could get their hands dirty since nothing the fat android did had any affect on Kakarot's momentum. Every attack by the mechanical being was either evaded or blocked with ease and each blow delivered rocked the metal being to its very core. However it was as minute number four began that he started to notice disturbing anomalies in Goku's attacks as well as the pauses between them. If he didn't know better he'd swear that the goofy Saiyan was getting tired, **very** tired, and was barely able to keep the tide of battle from turning to the android's side of things. It was that trend that brought them to the present and he did not like what he was seeing one bit. It was then that this Earth's premiere defender delivered a three hundred and sixty degree heel kick to the android and sent it flying towards the ground. It impacted on the ground with such force that a cloud of dust the size of a small shopping mall was produced, causing everything around the impact sight to be obscured. It didn't last long as the almost constant flow of air in this region quickly dispersed the cloud of dust to reveal the tubby android getting to its feet with nothing more than messed up clothes to show it had been struck. That more than anything concerned him since it meant that either these androids were made of tougher materials than he had originally thought or there had been insufficient power in Goku's blow to do any significant damage.

"Looks like we should get in there, Prince," Xander said as he began thinking of ways the two of them could intervene. "Goku's obviously on the verge of getting his ass handed to him and it would be an insult to our kind to let him get the crap beat out of him."

"No. He may be a clown of a commoner and my inferior, but he is still a Saiyan. It would soil his honour considerably to have anyone intervene now," Vegeta said, firmly making it clear that his word was law. "Besides, it's about time Kakarot learned where he stands in the grand scheme of things. Only a fool would make himself even sicker by fighting."

"Sicker? You mean—" Xander asked before the meaning behind Vegeta's words hit him like a small planetoid. "The **heart virus!**"

"Yes, the virus the boy from the future warned Kakarot about, it has begun to attack his heart and fighting as a Super Saiyan has only made it worse," Vegeta said with a contempt-filled smirk as he watched his rival floating uneasily in the air. "Much like poison, exertion has only caused the heart virus to gain strength that much quicker and flow throughout Kakarot's body. If I'm right, it'll only be a few more minutes before the fool won't be able to fight at all."

A brief flash of blue light yanked his attention away from the posturing windbag of a prince to see Goku preparing to unleash his signature attack. While this could be a very good thing, since the fight would be brought to a final end should it connect, he could not shake the idea of how things might go if it did not. The moment of truth soon came since with a little more haste then he would have liked Goku fired his kamehameha wave down at the fat bucket of bolts with perfect aim.

Not that you needed perfect aim with a potent attack like that but every little bit helped, right?

What happened next caused a distinctly uncomfortable feeling to come into being right in the middle of his stomach. Instead of the thunderous explosion or even signs that some damage was being inflicted on the android, the blast was somehow being drawn to a point on the robot's hand. While he wasn't sure how it was possible, he was certain that the android was somehow absorbing Goku's attack into its body. In a matter of seconds the neon blue attack was over with almost all of the energy having been absorbed into Tub-bot's open hand. Looking up at Goku, he could see that that energy attack had taken a lot out of him since the man's arms were limp at his sides rather than in fighting position. He could only imagine how haggard and weary the guy must look at the moment and he knew that one way or another the fight between Goku and the Fatty 2000 would end soon one way or another. He barely noticed Piccolo telling Kakarot the obvious concerning the android's ability since the majority of his mind was busy trying to come up with tactics to destroy the androids that didn't require a potent ki blast. While he supposed he could just make sure to rip their hands off so that they couldn't absorb energy through them anymore, he couldn't quite make himself believe that Gero had overlooked that flaw and prepared for it. It was so obvious that he was certain that someone smart enough to create super androids would have seen the problem and put in some sort of secondary system to compensate for the loss of both hands. That being the case, it meant that pounding the fat mechanical bastard into the ground would have to do and he supposed with a little imagination it'd be enjoyable enough.

With that thought he watched as the android shot into the air at Goku and the battle between the two of them began anew, except that this time the positions were reversed. Instead of Goku dominating and the android barely managing to mount a defence, now Kakarot was the one barely able to put up a fight. Both in terms of strength as well as speed, Goku seemed to be at less than half of what it had been prior to the ki blast and the android was taking full advantage of this. It took a turn for the worse as, with a potent double axe handle, the android managed to send the defender of the planet hurtling to the ground. It was probably two parts luck and one part sheer determination that allowed Goku to slow his descent and come to a hovering stop a few feet from the ground. Then, though, Xander saw something that made it clear that the heart virus growing within Goku was beginning to affect his mind because as soon as the man had finished righting himself, he began to go through the motions for another Kamehameha wave. He mentally cursed even more when he saw barely a puff of energy fly from the orange wearing Saiyan's hands before pain seemed to rack the guy's body. Eventually the pain seemed to get so bad that the adopted son of Earth could no longer stay aloft and it was with growing concern that the founding male member of the Scooby gang watched Goku descend to the ground.

"I hope you're ready to jump in soon, my Prince, because it doesn't look like this fight is going to last more than three more minutes." Xander said with the hidden implication that if the Prince of all Saiyans didn't do something to intervene, **he** would.

"Very well," Vegeta responded but in a manner that made it clear he would rather continue to watch his rival suffer. "Should Kakarot's life be put in serious danger, I will intervene but not a moment sooner. Understood?"

"Yes, my Prince." Xander said while suppressing the urge to bite his own tongue off for saying those last two words.

Looking back to Goku, he could see that the man was now in such pain that he was down to one knee with a hand clasped tightly over the location of his heart. He wondered if this was what it was like for someone having a heart attack, to feel a pain so bad that it made one unable to stand, and personally hoped he would never have to experience something like that himself. He could tell from the stances of the Z-fighters that they wanted to intervene but were forced by the chain of command to stay away from their C.O. While he might not like it, he knew from his lingering soldier memories that a chain of command was crucial to any big operation, lest it all fall to chaos. However it seemed as he saw Krillin make a short leap into the air, that baldy had found at least one loophole in order to help his childhood friend. The hair-challenged fighter threw something really small at Goku and while it was only a guess he supposed that it was probably a senzu bean. No doubt the short guy figured that the bean might at least take some of the edge off the pain the clownish Saiyan was feeling at the moment.

Less than a minute after Goku popped the bean into his mouth, though, the fat android went on the offensive by unleashing a pair of purple eye beams that tore up the ground between it and Kakarot. With a final explosion once it reached the premiere defender of Earth's location, all was obscured until Gohan's father flew clear of the cloud of dust enshrouded in the golden ki flame of his Super Saiyan state but this move had been anticipated by the creations of Dr. Gero and, no more than a few seconds after Goku cleared the dust cloud, Tub-bot appeared in front of him and promptly delivered a combo attack that sent Kakarot straight back to the ground. The man struggled valiantly to get back to his feet but that was also something the fat android had been waiting for since it was obviously a fan of the 'kick a man when his down' method to villainy. Again and again the android attacked from every direction imaginable without any opening that Kakarot might have been able to use to counterattack. By the time that the mechanical monster had decided to pause and admire its work, Goku was unable to do more than raise a limb a few inches.

Then the worst possible thing happened.

Goku transformed from a Super Saiyan to his ordinary self.

This was not good since, while being a Super Saiyan hadn't been enough to let Kakarot land any blows in the last few minutes, it had naturally given his body some protection from the attacks. With it gone, the android would be able to do considerably more damage to the Saiyan's body and likely kill him if given enough time. This was proven to be true when, in response to the obvious sign of weakness in his enemy, the fat android leapt into the air and landed butt first on Goku's chest. With each of the Saiyan's hands pinned down by a mechanical foot and his upper body weighed down by the tub of lead's ass, Kakarot was completely immobilized. For a moment Xander wondered what the android would do next, what manner of pain or torment would it use next, and got his answer in the form of a chalk white mechanical hand wrapping itself around the throat of Gohan's father. He could see even from his current distance from the battleground as Goku tried to free himself but it was clear that what little strength the hero of Earth had left wasn't close to what was needed to remove the android's hand from his throat.

It was then that Piccolo and the others apparently decided that enough was enough and, in a group of five comet-like ki fields, the Z-fighters flew to their leader's rescue. However just as they passed the halfway point the old geezer, the second of the two androids present on the battlefield vanished from his position on the ground and placed himself directly in their path. He didn't know whether the Namek or any of the others were strong enough to take out the geezer-bot on their own but he doubted that they'd be able to do it quickly enough to save Goku. His first teacher on this world was already showing signs of being unable to put up even a token resistance against his android attacker. Time was running out! He turned to say as much to Vegeta he was only able to look at the arrogant prick for a moment before the Prick of all Saiyans vanished in a burst of speed. Quickly employing the technique he had learned from Goku and refined under Vegeta for seeing fighters engaged in high speed combat, Xander quickly located his second teacher flying towards Goku's position like a bolt of lightning.

_Looks like the asshole was just as tired as I was of sitting on the sidelines, _he thought before he took to the air himself. _Good! Time to put all my training to good use!_

He managed to catch up most of the way to Vegeta and was pleased to watch the Prince deliver a bone-shaking kick to the side of the fat android's head that sent the mechanical muffin boy skidding across the ground a few dozen yards. Much like a hero and his…grrrr sidekick…the two of them touched down next to Goku ready for battle.

"Nobody kills Kakarot while I'm around. Destiny has reserved that pleasure for me," Vegeta proclaimed with confidence practically oozing off of him.

_Idiot! One day that cockiness of his is going to get us all in a shit load of trouble!_ He thought to himself as he watched the tub of lead android get to its feet.

"Wow! Vegeta! Xander!" Krillin exclaimed in surprise at their unexpected arrival.

Gohan mimicked this declaration but instead of surprise the tone was more one of mistrust.

"You're pitiful, Kakarot! You were warned about the heart virus." Vegeta said as he looked down at his prone rival, "You should have known that turning into a Super Saiyan could only make it worse! Really Kakarot! You're far to forgiving to be a great warrior. I'll finish these androids but then you're next. Got it!? Good."

With that, the Prick of all Saiyans gave what he probably considered a 'gentle' kick to Goku's side, sending the man flying into Piccolo's waiting hand. The Z-fighters were quick to gather around their ailing leader and from the look on the geezer-bot's face, it was not liking the way things were going one bit. As he heard Gohan plead for his father to hang on, Xander hoped that Vegeta hadn't waited too long before acting because, despite what the asshole probably believed, the world was a better place with Kakarot in it.

"One of you needs to take Kakarot home right now and give him the antidote. He's running out of time," Vegeta commanded without taking his eyes off the fat android.

It took a minute for the Z-fighters to decide who'd do this but eventually that waste of space Yamcha volunteered, proving that he wasn't a complete idiot. Of all the Z-Fighters, he was probably the weakest and that meant getting him off the battlefield would only improve their chances. Not that it looked like they'd need much help because, if he was right, Goku could have probably won the battle single-handedly if the heart virus hadn't sapped all his strength. Still, the niggling feeling that had been bothering him was still as persistent as ever so Xander decided not to assume they'd win even if it did look like the odds were stacked in their favour.

As Yamcha flew off he could see that the tub of lead was about to try and stop them and made ready in case he had to make a move.

"Let them go. They pose us no threat." Geezer-bot ordered as he descended to the ground, "You have done well, Nineteen! It is obvious that Goku is no match for us. We can finish him at the moment of our choosing. Until then we will entertain ourselves by destroying all of his pitiful friends."

Naturally this put Piccolo and the others on the defensive but Vegeta remained as cocky as ever leaving him to take everything in with professionalism.

"Heheheheheh! Yes! This is going to be very enjoyable." Geezer-bot said with malevolence in its voice.

_Jeez! Don't these villains ever change their dialogue!? _Xander thought to himself as half rolled his eyes in annoyance at the geezer-bot.

It was one of the things he both appreciated and hated about villains. He liked it because it meant they were getting cocky and that meant sloppy moves and a serious underestimation of his abilities. He hated it because it meant a potentially longwinded speech was waiting in the wings and that pissed him off. He could hear Krillin and the others getting nervous with there even being talk of doing the strategic retreat thing and seriously began to wonder if these warriors had backbones of their own. This was the first major battle he'd signed on to fight with them and already it looked like they were willing to throw in the towel just because their leader had been defeated.

"There's a chance that it might not happen like that guy said it would. There are some differences, Goku being alive is a major one, so I say we act as if we never heard that guy's prophecy before." Piccolo stated just as Krillin's yellow streak started to get bothersome.

_Good ole Namek! Knew I could count on him to show some backbone!_ Xander thought with a respectful half grin.

It was then that the fat tub of lead apparently had reached the limits of its patience and wanted the carnage to resume as it bowed to its companion.

"I will finish of Vegeta now, yes?" It asked respectfully of the geezer-bot.

"You are being very greedy today, Nineteen. You have already absorbed enough energy from Goku to increase your power have you not?" Geezer-bot asked without looking in his companion's direction.

Nineteen's only response to this was to remain silent and continue looking at its partner for a response.

"Very well. You finish Vegeta but the rest, including that other Saiyan, are mine. Do you understand?" Geezer-bot asked with supreme command authority.

Nineteen's only response to this was to turn towards Vegeta and him before going into a fighting stance. Obviously much like its appearance would indicate this android clearly thought with his power cells and not his CPU. In a show of arrogance, the android even opened one of its hands to reveal the method by which it had absorbed Kakarot's Kamehameha wave. It was circular transparent implant in the middle of the machine's palm and on the surface it didn't look all that impressive as far as he was concerned. Still, he had seen it in action so he had no reason to doubt that it would be able to perform its designed function.

"Give me some room, Xander," Vegeta commanded with arms crossed over his chest and his trademark Saiyan grin on his face. "I will take care of these androids. If they prove to be too little of a challenge for me, I might let you have a crack at one later."

"As you wish, Vegeta," he said grudgingly before zipping over to join Piccolo and the others in the blink of an eye.

"We were watching your battle with Kakarot, so I've seen your energy absorbing technique," Vegeta stated with cool analytical confidence. "Oh well! If I can't blast you away, I'll have to pound you into a pulp that's all!"

"You know some of my moves but I know all of your moves, Vegeta." Nineteen stated without any flux in its voice synthesizer. "Oh yes! Dr. Gero studied you very thoroughly."

"Oh! Is that a fact? Then why were you so surprised at the power and speed Kakarot displayed as a Super Saiyan?" Vegeta asked with disrespect towards the android, "I'll tell you why! Because your database doesn't cover the battles we had in space. Your bonehead creator picked a fine chapter to omit from your memory banks!"

"Oh?" Nineteen asked rhetorically as it was completely unimpressed by Vegetable Head's bravado.

"That's right, my friend. Let me ask you, does a machine like yourself ever experience fear?!" Vegeta asked as he began to prepare himself for something.

_Looks like the Prick of all Saiyans has decided to play his trump card right out of the starting gates,_ Xander thought to himself as he watched his former training partner begin to rev up his life energy causing it to go higher and higher.

"You've gotta be kidding me! I don't believe it!" Krillin exclaimed as the Prince's hair began to flash from gold to black and back again.

"Believe it, shorty." Xander said as he wondered how a Super Saiyan unhindered by a heart virus would fare against one of these androids.

"Not him too!" Exclaimed Geezer-bot as Nineteen looked like it was reconsidering its former position of arrogance.

"YAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Vegeta cried out and, in a surge of power that seriously displaced the ground beneath his feet, the Prick of all Saiyans completed the transformation to Super Saiyan status.

The air displacement that accompanied the transformation was fierce as it forced Android Nineteen back a few steps and caused a few of the Z-fighters to shield their faces from the airborne debris. He, though, merely looked forward as he was used to the way the transformation disturbed the environment and so was unaffected.

"Woah! You know who joined the Super Saiyan club!" Gohan declared in surprise at this unexpected turn of events, "He is on our side, isn't he?"

"Don't worry Gohan. As long as the Vegetable Head thinks he has something to gain from pounding those two androids into scrap metal, we don't have anything to worry about." Xander stated as the winds generated by the transformation began to calm down.

"Woah…I'm confused." Krillin stated uneasily with a hint of dislike for Vegeta's new ability, "I thought you had to be like Goku to be one. Goku's so calm and detached and purehearted but obviously those aren't considered prerequisites!"

"Afraid not. There's more than one way to reach the goal." Vegeta stated as he walked out of the crater that his transformation had created beneath him, "Yes, to each his own! My motivation was very different than Kakarot's, my motivation was to be the best, to be the greatest Saiyan alive as I always have been. Until **Kakarot **came into the picture that is!"

_Oh GREAT! Here comes the 'how I became a Super Saiyan' story written and directed by Prince Vegetable himself!_ Xander groaned mentally as he started looking for a few happy places to go to for the next couple of minutes.

Fully immersing himself in the fantasy of the entire female cast of Baywatch running down a Californian beach in skimpy bikinis, he was only peripherally paying attention. He heard as the Windbag of all Saiyans explained both his motivations for becoming a Super Saiyan as well as how difficult a road it had been. Naturally the words used and the phrasing of each sentence were done to make himself out to be some kind of great warrior, a legend in the making, rather than just an obsessed, pompous prick. When the journey out into space came into the picture, the bastard naturally made it look like he'd been the epitome of generosity by dragging the dimensionally displaced Saiyan along for training. Not once was there a mention of knocking him unconscious before taking off nor how he had spent almost as much time in the spaceship's medical bay as he did training those first few months. Just more and more grandstanding and exaggerating of his feats of progress all building towards the day he finally managed to pull off the monumental feat of turning into a Super Saiyan. Also any time the name 'Xander' entered into the picture, it was like he was Robin to Vegeta's Batman, which only served to make it harder to keep himself from telling the prick off.

"Yes. That's how it happened." Vegeta proclaimed finally bringing his longwinded narration to an end, "That's how I became a Super Saiyan. The sleeper has **awakened!** I am the Prince of all Saiyans once again!"

_Blah! Blah! Blah! Hopefully he won't make a habit of telling this story too often or I might just ask these androids to kill me now and save me from that nightmare!_ Xander thought to himself hoping that the fighting would start soon.

"Enough of this nonsense, fool! You may have become a Super Saiyan but your newfound power is still no match for us." Geezer-bot stated, sounding like he'd had about as much of Vegeta's grandstanding as he was going to take, "Please demonstrate, Nineteen."

Less than a second after the words were spoken by the fossil android, the large android shot twin beams of energy from his eyes directly at Vegeta. Pathetic, since it only took a slight manipulation of the ki field surrounding a Super Saiyan's body to deflect such a weak attack. Then Nineteen actually did something marginally smart by using the dirt thrown up into the air as cover while it burrowed underground and popped up behind the Prick of all Saiyans and fired another duo of energy blasts from its eyes. These actually detonated on target but Xander could tell through his ki sensing abilities that it didn't really matter. There was not even a slight drop in Vegeta's power level and there had been no cry of pain to accompany the explosion, so adding the two together just confirmed what he had already decided: the attacks had not hurt his former teacher in the slightest. Lard Bot also seemed to think something was up as it paused in its attacks to see just how 'beat up' Vegeta was from its assaults.

It didn't take long for the wind in the area to blow away the debris in the air and thus reveal the completely unscathed Prince standing like he was ready for round two already. The stupid android, though, wasn't smart enough to realise that lack of damage on one's opponent meant that said enemy wasn't hurt. The bucket of bolts actually seemed to think that it had just scored a major hit from the way it started laughing maniacally. This was quickly added to with a full frontal assault as the wide load android flew forward and delivered a powerful punch right to Vegeta's face that knocked the Prick of all Saiyans' head back quite a bit. The idiot bucket of bolts took a moment to admire its opening blow but then began to get medieval on Vegetable Head's ass by delivering a series of rights and lefts to the head that culminated in a head butt. This had the surprising effect of actually forcing Vegeta to take a step back to stabilize himself but, again, there wasn't a noticeable drop in the asshole's power level.

_The Jackass is just grandstanding! Doing all this for show to make himself look like the ultimate warrior!_ Xander fumed as he was treated to yet another example of Vegeta's ego, _If he doesn't get off his high horse and start taking things seriously, it'll definitely cause the rest of us trouble down the line._

"Just as I thought. You're nothing!" Vegeta said as he dramatically righted himself to reveal that all the android's attack had done was produce a trickle of blood from the side of his mouth, "Silly robot! Do you really think you have a chance against a Super Saiyan like me? Your brain must be malfunctioning! Fresh out of the factory with no warranty and already broken. What a pity."

It was a pleasant surprise when Vegeta lashed out with a thrust kick to the tub of lead's stomach that looked like it would have come out the other side if a bit more power had been added to the blow. This caused the android to cry out in surprise and in pain as it clearly hadn't expected such a fierce blow, but it was only allowed to bellow for a moment before Vegeta delivered a left elbow to the machine's face. This sent the robot flying into the air but this was only for a moment since in a blur of motion Vegetable head appeared right above it and kicked it back to the ground.

_While the guy might have an ego the size of three solar systems, I gotta give the man his props when it comes to dishing out the pain._ Xander thought grudgingly as he heard the exclamations of surprise from everyone else.

As Vegeta reached the fallen android he said, "My, my! What do we have here? Oh yes! The ultimate, tub of lard, bucket of bolts!"

In a move of unexpected cunning, the robot had apparently been playing possum because, in a move of substantial speed, it kicked up onto its feet and tried to deliver a serious head butt to the Prick of all Saiyans. Naturally, though, Vegeta proved to be the faster of the two of them because not only did he manage to avoid the attack but managed to plant both hands on the ground and deliver a devastating double kick to the android's gut. This sent the mechanical moron flying into the air, where Vegetable head soon followed it and sadly at that point both combatants were out of hearing distance. It was a mixed blessing since while it would give him a reprieve from Vegeta's gloating, it also meant that any info the android might let slip would also be lost. As the android went on the offensive, it was proven to his satisfaction that Super Saiyan's were leagues above these androids both in speed and power. That, however, led to one very troubling question: if a Super Saiyan could dominate these androids then why couldn't that guy from the future handle the ones in his time? It didn't make sense! According to the version of the tale he heard from Goku, his son Gohan was the only survivor of the Z-warriors when the two androids initially went on the rampage. Surely during that time Gohan would have managed to become a Super Saiyan and even if he didn't, a Super Saiyan capable of wiping the floor with this Freeza character should have been able to handle these two androids no problem. Hell! If his ki sensing ability was right, the Namek could probably take one of these androids down one on one without any serious difficulty at all. Why! Why would the Z-Warriors have died in that other timeline if there were having so little difficulty in the here and now? While it was true that the Z-fighter's had been training harder than they otherwise would have these past three years, Xander couldn't believe that there would have been that much of a difference in their strength in the two timelines. Regardless of whether or not these androids were created, he knew that Vegeta would have still been obsessed with becoming stronger than Goku and thus would likely have become a Super Saiyan at about the same time as he did in this timeline.

It hit him like a bolt of lighting and he almost didn't want to believe what his mind was telling him.

These androids weren't the ones destined to kill the Z-Warriors and lay waste to the world!

It seemed improbable since these two machines showed up right on time, exactly when the boy from the future said the robots would start their rampage. Like the second tile in a carefully placed series of dominos, the next revelation popped into his head and perfectly meshed with the first one. From the way he'd been described by Goku, this kid from the future was about the same age as he was and if you took into account that the fact that he came from about ten or more years in the future, then that means that he would have at most been three or four years old when the androids appeared. If that was indeed the case then it was no wonder that the teenager would have made a mistake like this since he only got the information second hand from Gohan. It all made sense now!! However it also meant that somewhere in the world, inside of Gero's laboratory, two more androids existed that made these two look like helpless babies by comparison. That led him to wonder how they were activated. Would they switch on upon the destruction of these two or would one of these androids need to make their way back to the lab to flip the on switch? Both were possible and that left him with a difficult choice to make: should he try and convince the others to take the androids prisoner rather than destroy them or should he let at least one of them live in order to follow it back to the lab? The former was unlikely to happen since he seemed to be the only one to clue into the differences between the future kid's story and what was happening now. That meant hoping that geezer-bot got wise and decided to make a run for it because unless he was very much mistaken Nineteen wouldn't be around for much longer.

This was proven to be true to when a double axe handle from the Prick of all Saiyans sent the fat tub or lead down to earth hard enough to leave a sizeable crater. Vegeta soon landed in said crater looking as confident as ever and the only good thing he could see was that the asshole was beginning to lose interest in the fight.

"Despicable! What a useless machine!" Vegeta declared looking down at his foe with contempt.

A second later the machine sprung to life and grabbed both of the Saiyan's wrists with its hands in what looked to be a fairly solid grip.

"Oh **YES!**" Nineteen exclaimed with glee, "I have you now and soon I will have all of your energy. Do not try to escape. Yes? It is useless. Until I have your energy I will never let you go."

"Never, huh?" Vegeta asked both rhetorically and conversationally, "Let's see."

With that Vegeta secured a grip of his own on the android's forearms and then planted both feet right on the tub of lead's chubby face before. Then a match between the immovable object and the irresistible force started when Vegetable Head began to push with his legs against the android's face in an effort to break the machine's grip. Harder and harder the pressure became with little strain on Vegeta's face but the android's head looked like it was going to pop like a zit any second.

"Well so far I'm impressed! You're very true to your word!" Vegeta said showing more strain in his voice than on his face, "But never can be a long time android!"

This went on for several minutes with neither side giving up but when he began to notice a slight deformation in the robot's arm he knew it would all come to a close in the next few moments.

"Is something wrong? You seem like you're under a lot of pressure." Vegeta said with mocking concern for the android, "Still think you can hang on long enough to steal my energy?"

"I…will…NEVER…let…you…GO!" Proclaimed the android in defiance.

"Yes! That's the spirit android!" Vegeta said with partial respect, "NEVER SAY **DIE!**"

With that the Prince of all Saiyans yanked on the forearms of the android for all he was worth and, with the sound of tearing metal as well as fake flesh, both mechanical hands came off at the wrists. Stumbling backwards in fear, Nineteen eventually fell on its ass when it came into contact with the crater wall. Nevertheless, both in sound and sight, the android's fear was visible to all and brought a smile to his face. The machine looked at the stumps that had once had hands on them and definitely was experiencing some kind of cascade failure as it tried to figure out how it could have lost its hands. In a casual manner, Vegetable Head removed the two hands that had remained wrapped around his wrists before examining one of them.

"Hmmmm. So **these** are the devices that you androids use to rob people of their energy." Vegeta said conversationally as he examined the palm of the machine's severed hand, "What's the matter? You're the one who started this game and now you don't want to play anymore?

"You were enjoying yourself before! When you were sucking the life out of Kakarot." Vegeta said as he discarded the hand he'd been examining and began to walk towards the disarmed android.

With every step Vegeta took the android became more and more agitated.

"So I guess it's true after all. Androids **do** experience fear." Vegeta said as he came to a stop about ten feet from where the android now stood.

Apparently the look, one most likely of malevolence and impending violence, in Vegeta's eyes became too much for the android and, like an utter coward, it scrambled out of the crater and tried to make a run for it. Unfortunately the Prince of all Pricks wasn't done yet apparently as he took to the air and then hovered in the perfect position for launching a new offensive.

"ENOUGH!" Geezer-bot bellowed, since it seemed to realise that if something wasn't done soon he'd be the only android left.

"Don't be absurd! It's enough because you're losing!" Vegeta yelled clearly angry at someone trying to interrupt his fun, "You've come here to destroy us! Fool! You're going to have to finish what you started!"

With that Vegetable Head brought his ki flame up to high boil and stretched his right arm out towards the fleeing android Nineteen with his palm facing the machine.

"Time has run out for you android. Here it comes! A little going away present for you! **Hahahaha!**" Vegeta stated as power gathered in front of his palm before discharging a wrecking ball-sized sphere of blue energy that flew towards Nineteen.

When the attack landed it exploded with the force of a truckload or two of TNT but then unleashed its full potential in the form of a blast akin to a nuclear explosion. In fact, the only thing that probably kept the rest of them from being harmed was because the Prick of all Saiyans somehow managed to direct the majority of the destructive force at his target. Nevertheless, when all was said and done, a mushroom cloud rose from the ground and soared into the air to the point where it was sure to be seen by anyone possessing a decent pair of binoculars. When the dust cleared it was revealed that the blast had flattened an are of rocky outcroppings the size of two football fields and all that remained of Nineteen was a barely in one piece head. It rolled around on the ground until its momentum played itself out and, oddly enough from his perspective, it looked like its eyes were crossed.

"I only wish there was a junkyard nearby so we could give him a burial. Heheheheh," Vegeta gloated from his position in the air with a full Saiyan smirk on his face.

_Oh __**GREAT!**__ Now he thinks he's a comedian!_ Xander thought to himself as he wondered just how bad Vegetable Head's ego was going to get.

"Man! That android's **toast**!" Krillin exclaimed in amazement at the destructive power behind Vegeta's attack.

"Yeah. More like **burnt** toast." Picollo said in agreement with his comrade's statement.

Vegeta then descended to the ground behind the sole remaining android and waited until the geezer-bot turned to look at him.

"You are a bit stronger than I had anticipated but it is nothing I cannot handle." Geezer-bot said trying to sound tough but the fake sweat coming down the machine's face exposed the façade for what it was, "Your defeat is imminent."

"Heheheheh. Yes, your friend managed to steal quite a bit of energy from me before I **stopped** him." Vegeta said as he for some reason turned back to normal and began dusting himself off, "Now's **your** chance to beat me. A vicious attack now could be sufficient."

Concerned that something might be up, Xander used his ki sensing ability to try and get an accurate reading on Vegeta's power level. If this was all an act, if the Prince of all Saiyans was still near full power, then the android wouldn't know what hit it when it tried to launch an attack. However as he peered deeper into his former teacher, he could see that over half of the Saiyan Prince's power had been drained out of him. If the android went on the offensive now, it could very well manage to kill Vegeta in under a minute. Was Vegeta banking on his acting abilities to scare the machine off? Or was the jerk acting so confident because he figured that he or someone else would come to the rescue? Most likely the former because in his opinion the Prick of all Saiyans would rather die than accept help from anyone, much less be **saved** by anyone. Besides which, if the android did attack and kill Vegeta, it would be an acceptable loss since it would remove Mr. Ego from the equation thus increasing the good guys' chances of winning this battle.

"Let me ask you this: what makes you think that you're going to do any better than him?" Vegeta asked seriously with eyes firmly locked on his next opponent, "You're an android too. I bet your head rolls just as well as his does!"

"Fool! I am far superior to the android Nineteen model. Stamping you out of existence is a trifle for a unit like me." Geezer-bot replied with a confidence that fooled no one.

"You're bluffing, friend. Let's see what you've got!" Vegeta said, seeing all too well how hollow the android's response really was.

Seeing that his act wasn't fooling anybody, the android immediately took to the air and began to fly away at what most likely was his top speed. Xander had to smile at the fact that the machine didn't know a bluff when he saw one but, in the end, it worked in favour for the good guys since it meant they had the advantage at the moment. That was assuming, of course, that Vegetable Head did the right thing and allowed him to mop up the final android rather than keep the last android present all to himself. However, upon reviewing what he knew of the Prick of all Saiyans, he knew that Vegeta wouldn't let anyone else fight until he got bored with his opponent and then he was just as likely to finish off said enemy in one shot rather than step aside in order to let others have a go. This annoyed him because while he wasn't exactly fight crazy like Vegetable Head and Kakarot could be, sometimes he was interested in enjoying a good fight. True, if he wanted a fight with geezer-bot to last, he would have to hold back a bit and probably let the overgrown toaster get a few shots in, but it would be worth it. First, though, he'd better catch up to the malfunctioning moron or else he might lose the machine and with it his chance to kick some ass.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk! He forgot to say goodbye to us." Xander said as he powered up his ki field, "Someone should really teach him some manners!"

With that he took off in hot pursuit of the android, completely ignoring Vegeta's order to back off since, as far as he was concerned, the time for taking commands from short, impotent and arrogant was long since past. Looking ahead, Xander could still see the dot in the distance that marked the machine's position but knew he would have to close the distance a lot more if he wanted to keep track of it. Raising his energy level even more, he was satisfied as the dot increased to the size of an action figure in his eyes and then a stuffed toy. Holding at this velocity, he kept his sharp eyes trained on the android and while he had no doubt that the machine knew it was being pursued, the distance between them was apparently not quite threatening enough to warrant a change of plans. This was good but it didn't last as he sensed a large power coming up from behind him at high speeds and knew that it could only be Vegeta. This would be bad because now that the Prince was annoyed or even angry at him, any thought of strategy would be gone from the royal Saiyan's head. Now all Vegetable Head would want would be to vent his anger on the android with lots of power moves and perhaps a ki blast. Xander considered slowing down a bit and trying to talk sense to the man who'd been his teacher for the past year but knew that would be pointless.

_When that idiot thinks he's right there's just no persuading him otherwise!_ He thought angrily as he just knew that the jackass would be a serious problem from here on out.

Looking ahead, he only caught a blur of motion as the machine apparently picked up on Vegeta's approach and immediately chose to go into hiding rather than keep flying in plain sight. Saying a few choice curses he learned from Giles, he waited until he reached the spot where the machine had vanished before setting down on the nearest satisfactory landing pad. He knew the android was still in the area since he could perceive no white and brown blurs zipping between the rocks but aside from that he knew nothing. He felt like seriously chewing out his old sensei and give the fool a lecture on stealth but knew it would be an inefficient use of his energy and his time. He'd probably have better luck trying to persuade G-man to wear one of his loud shirts than getting Vegeta to see any viewpoint other than his own.

"Insolent fool! I told you this android was mine!" Vegeta yelled as he landed to the left.

"Forget it, dumbass! You had the other android but now it's my turn to have some fun." Xander said, not even bothering to turn in Vegetable Head's direction, "I've trained too hard for the past three years just to see it all go to waste because you decided to be greedy! So stand back and give me some work room!"

"Why you!!! After all the time I spent moulding you into a shining example of Saiyan skill and power, **this** is what I get!" Vegeta yelled angrily after getting over the initial shock of his formally obedient student turning on him, "I should have left you to die out there in space!!"

"Shoulda, woulda, coulda Vegetable Head!" He snarked since the Prince's tantrum was ruining his concentration, "Now that we're back on Earth, my days of kissing up to you are over! Now shut up and let me work or we'll find out who the strongest really is between the two of us."

It was then that a flash of inspiration hit him about how to get a bead on the android's location and if he was right then all it would take would be stirring the Prick of all Saiyans up a bit more to make it work.

"After all, I meant what I said earlier about holding back during our little sparring matches on that moon. I knew that if I actually gave it my all, I'd beat you in five minutes easy and have to spend at least a week listening to you griping about it." Xander stated, putting a little of his own brand of Saiyan cockiness into his voice, "Now that I don't need you anymore, though, I can finally be honest with you without having to worry about listening to you whine for hours on end. So go off and find a place with a good echo so you can hear your own voice better because after twelve months of it I've had more than enough of it!"

"DAMN YOU!! NO ONE TALKS TO ME LIKE THAT! **NO ONE!!**" Vegeta yelled as his anger jumped from 'someone ate the last donut' mad to 'I found you sleeping with my wife' mad.

With that the Prince of all Saiyans shot into the air and, once enough altitude had been achieved, the fool pumped his energy level up a level before gathering power for an attack. It was times like this that made him wonder if Vegeta was really as clever as everyone seemed to think he was. After all, the 'get your enemy mad enough to do what you want them to do' trick was one of the oldest ones in the book. He and the gang had used it a lot back in Sunnydale against vamps and demons with a high enough IQ for it to work on. Still, since Vegetable Head's ego was a good thing in this case because it provided him with the perfect set up to draw the geezer-bot out into the open. If it was anything like Nineteen, then the temptation to absorb more energy would be too much for it to resist and when it left its hiding place to chow down he would be ready for it.

_However I should probably gain some altitude myself since I doubt the machine is stupid enough to try and eat with a Saiyan at ground zero._ Xander thought as he used his ki to lift himself into the air about twenty or thirty feet while still making sure that when the blast missed him, it would hit the ground beneath him. As he came to a stop, though, he could sense that the Prick of all Saiyans was about ready to fire off his attack and probably just needed one more nudge before he'd throw caution to the wind.

"Oh really? Then I suppose no one has ever told you that you're a self-centered, egotistical, vertically-challenged asshole whose dreams of becoming the best will never be anything **but** dreams," Xander said, sounding like he was being hypothetical while believing every word spoken. "A pity! Maybe if they'd told you that sooner it might have been you that beat Freeza rather than Goku but what's done is done. You'll probably be second best to him until the day you die for the final time, so I guess you'll have no choice but to accept it."

"SHUT UP!!" Vegeta yelled as his fury reached a peak and threw the energy sphere at the source of his rage as hard as he could.

Xander waited until the last possible moment before dodging the attack so as not to give his plan away to the android but as he saw the destructive sphere near the ground, he began to worry that he may have overestimate the machine's hunger for power. However when a blur of motion appeared out of the corner of his left eye, Xander couldn't help but grin as the bucket of bolts did exactly what it was supposed to do. Like clockwork, the android came to a stop at ground zero and threw its hands up, the location of its energy absorbing devices, and when the sphere made contact began to draw in the ki as fast as it could. Taking this opportunity, he immediately brought his ki field up as high as he could in three seconds then charged the android's position in the hopes of closing to hand-to-hand combat range before it could flee. He managed to reach the twenty-five foot range before the android took notice of his rapid approach and did something completely unexpected. It had been his going theory at the beginning that the android would not be able to move until it had finished absorbing Vegeta's energy blast. After all, if it stopped before the ball was completely consumed the remaining ki would detonate causing it significant damage. However against all logic the machine broke off its efforts to absorb the energy of the energy sphere and actually managed to get clear of the blast in time to come out of it unscathed.

Too bad he couldn't say the same.

Through a combination of his own speed and the remaining destructive energy of the attack, Xander caught the blast full in the face. It was nowhere near enough for him to be harmed in any way, but it did force him to stop in his tracks rather than continue pursuit of the android. As the blast died down, Xander cursed himself for not being able to foresee this possible turn of events but shaking off such useless thoughts he brought his ki flame back to a high roar and shot off in the last direction he'd seen the android go. He knew he could go faster if he took it up a notch but he wanted to save that little surprise until the last possible moment, especially if he could trick the machine into thinking that **this** was his maximum and that would let the surprise be all the more effective.

Travelling what had to have been at least half a mile without any sign of the android, Xander was forced to concede that he had lost the wind up warrior reducing, events back to hide-and-go-seek like they'd been before he'd conceived his 'brilliant' plan. With doubled determination, he began to examine every nook and cranny, every overhang of stone or hill of rocks, in an effort to find the machine. It had to be around here somewhere and if he could just find it, he could sneak up on it this time so that he'd at least be able to get a shot in before it could get away.

For the next ten minutes straight he scoured everything within range of his eyes, examined everything closely so as not to miss **anything**, but in the end that was his undoing. His unmatched focus on what he could see distracted him from everything else and allowed a viper to sneak up on him without being noticed. As it was it wasn't until he saw a hand appear out of the corner of his eye that he got his first clue as to what had happened but by then it was too late. In the blink of an eye a hand was clamped over his mouth keeping him from calling out to anyone and cold mechanical limbs were wrapped around him, ensuring that dislodging the android would not be easy. Freeing himself, though, was definitely top priority because even though it had only been three seconds since the machine had clamped down on his mouth he could already feel his ki leaving him. Reaching up with his sole free arm, he tried to free his mouth at the very least in the hopes that he could call out for assistance but at the rate his energy was dropping he soon found himself at insufficient levels to do so.

_DAMN IT! I should have played my trump card from the start!_ He thought angrily as his mind kicked into high gear trying to find a strategy that would succeed in freeing him, _I better think of something soon or it's gonna get pretty lifeless around here in more ways than one!_

Brute strength wasn't the answer, since he could feel his physical strength seeping away second by second, and that left only some sort of ki move. That, however, was also risky since it would likely only force feed the android even more power than it was currently acquiring now. That could be a good thing though because, according to his wealth of sci-fi knowledge, beings that had the ability to absorb energy from others also had limits as far as how much energy they could absorb as well as the rate at which they could absorb it. If he discharged a high enough quantity of ki all at once, he might be able to mess with the machine's circuits long enough to break free. Then, hopefully, Krillin would arrive with the senzu beans and that would allow him to recover the energy he'd lost… at which point it would be payback time for this geezer-bot.

With determination and a will to survive, he decided it was time to play his trump card and hope for the best. Calling upon the memories of his time learning under Goku, he recalled the trick he'd been informed about and began to pull to the surface every failure and every fear of loss he could. He remembered losing his Aunt Joan that night when they'd been walking back from A&W thanks to a drunk driver. He remembered having to stake his brother in all but blood Jesse who he'd been unable to keep from getting turned into a vampire. He remembered the bodies of the innocent people that he and the gang had been just a few seconds too late to save during their patrols. He remembered all the times that he had needed to be saved by Buffy because he hadn't been strong enough to defend or free himself. He remembered the ambush at the library! He remembered seeing Kendra lying dead on the floor because he hadn't been able to get to her in time!

_No __**more!**__ I won't allow myself to be the __**weak**__ one any longer! _Xander raged to himself as he let the need and the anger grow more and more within_, I __**will**__ be strong!! I __**will**__ be a force to be reckoned with! __**I WILL NOT LOSE ANYONE EVER AGAIN!**_

With those words his trump card was brought forth in response to the need that had grown to planetary proportions within him.

He transformed into a Super Saiyan.

With such violence and such speed this was done that his earlier theory about the nature of the android's energy absorbing technology proved accurate. By dramatically increasing his power in such a short period of time, he exceeded the max amount of energy geezer-bot's devices could absorb during that time. Add to that the amount of force behind the ki he was letting out and he soon found himself free as a bird but sadly that was about it. While his plan had succeeded in freeing him from the clutches of the machine, he was still missing quite a bit of energy and that would be a problem if the robot managed to clamp onto him once again. Thankfully that dilemma was solved as he sensed the ki signatures of the others closing in fast with Piccolo and Vegeta with the shortest ETA time. In under a minute the android was surrounded on all sides by the Z-fighters making another escape impossible for the geezer-bot.

"Are you okay, Xander?" Gohan asked with concern, since it was plain to see that the dimensionally displaced Saiyan was not in top form.

"Yeah. I just need a senzu bean and then I'll be ready to finish this!" He said before looking right at Krillin, "Toss me a bean!"

"Geez! You might have learned how to fight from Goku and Vegeta but you definitely forgot how to say please since I saw you last." Krillin muttered as he reached inside the pouch of senzu beans to retrieve one, "You're supposed to say 'please' when you make a request like that!"

With a decent fastball throw, the bald friend of Goku tossed a bean in his direction and almost without thinking about it he caught it then popped it into his mouth. Chewing up the bean that felt more like hard candy of some kind, Xander soon swallowed and within seconds he felt the energy within him swell to just over his previous max capacity. Just like he'd heard from Goku, a Saiyan's power increased when recovering from a serious injury and while the energy absorption devices hadn't left a mark on him, they still qualified as a series injury, apparently. Flaring up his ki field, he relished in the sensation derived from reaching a new level and allowed a small smirk to form on his face as he looked at the obviously nervous android.

"Now that the little problem of the energy you stole from me has been dealt with, I'd say its time to get things started, Geezer-bot!" He said as he slipped into a fighting stance, "The rest of you just stand back and watch! This is my fight and I will not go easy on anyone who butts in!"

One by one the allies of Goku moved back to give the two combatants room to fight with only Vegetable head dragging his heels (metaphorically speaking, of course). The two of them glared each other with his gaze demanding that the Prince leave the battlefield and the enemy to him while Vegeta's look possessed an abundance of arrogance and superiority. In the end, though, the Prick of all Saiyans must have decided that something like this wasn't worth dirtying his hands with because a minute later he sauntered back about the same distance.

"Fine! I suppose it would be selfish of me to deprive a fellow Saiyan a chance to test himself even if it is against such a weak opponent." Vegeta said as stopped satisfied that he was far enough away, "Just make sure you win, Xander! It would be disgraceful if the Saiyan I'd chosen to be my new partner lost his first battle after completing his lessons under me."

"Partner!? Like I'd ever want to work with a cocky asshole like you for the rest of my life!!" He shot back with contempt at the designation Vegetable Head had given him, "I'd rather work solo and die than join up with you!"

"Then prepare to have your wish granted**, FOOL!**" Geezer-bot exclaimed as it surged forward, clearly intent on drawing first blood in their fight.

It was almost laugh-worthy how easy it was for him to evade the machine's thrust strike and, with a casual swing, he managed to send the robot plummeting to the ground like a pig with a wrecking ball chained to its waist. With the shattering of rocks and much dirt thrown up into the air, the android created by Dr. Gero hit terra firma with authority and while the smart thing to do would be to pursue, he was content to stay where he was. After all, he wanted this to last and if he decided to, he might just arrange for the android to make his escape if he made a decision as to whether or not to believe his earlier theory about the method of activation for the **real** killer duo of androids. It was a coin toss at the moment as to which theory he would subscribe to in the end, but he was fairly certain that by the time that he was done having fun with Geezer-bot he'd be ready to choose. As he watched the dust and dirt clear below him, he was glad to see that the android was still willing to put up a fight.

It was a second later that the machine went on the attack again by means of a one-two punch-kick combo that might have actually managed to do some damage to him in his normal state. As a Super Saiyan, though, both blows were easily blocked before he delivered a palm thrust that sent the machine flying into the side of a pillar of stone and out the other side. This made it clear to him more than ever that this android was not one of the ones destined to kill all but Gohan in a massive, bloody battle. No android that was this weak would have given that boy from the future enough trouble to warrant an attempt to change the past through time travel. Still, despite the fact that the smart move would be to end the fight now, he was unable to bring himself to bring his fun to such a premature close. While not particularly challenging, Geezer-bot was still the first opponent he didn't feel particularly incline to hold back against in a fight. Even Vegeta, who definitely made it a point to piss him off once a day during the past year of training, hadn't experienced what it was like to face Xander unleashed, tlthough that was more due to the fact that the adopted son of Tony Harris didn't have a clue how to operate the spaceship than any real wish to keep Vegeta alive.

A small voice in the back of his head was screaming at him not to let the pleasure he was receiving from the fight get the better of him but he dismissed that notion outright. While he was enjoying himself, he was perfectly aware that the mission to stop the androids took priority and would end the fight once he was satisfied with his performance. A performance the android seemed eager to resume as it approached with some actual strategy in mind since it was using several shorter bursts of hyper-speed to advance rather than doing a bull impression. While still not fast enough for him to lose sight of, the machine it was still enough to actually warrant some thought as to how to properly deal with it. Deciding to allow the android to make the first move, he waited until the fist of false flesh almost connected with his jaw before leaning to the side so it missed him completely. Grabbing the extended arm with his left hand, he charged his right with ki and, in a single upwards slash, he severed the mechanical arm at the elbow, leaving only a sparking stump behind.

"Gero must have been slipping when he designed you because even with all that energy you stole from me, you're still nothing but a skeleton of substandard parts covered in synthetic flesh. I mean, really, you saw how easily Vegeta destroyed your tubby friend before, what made you think you'd fare any better against me?" Xander asked as the android clumsily flew away from him while taking occasional glances at the exposed circuitry in its arm, "Now, I'm not completely heartless here. If you tell us where Gero's lab is along with any other creations he's made, I'll make your end quick and clean. Pretty decent of me, don't you think?"

When the android didn't respond he decided that this time perhaps he would go on the offensive instead, but just as he was about to move in a ping appeared on his ki-dar. It wasn't one he recognised and it wasn't all that strong compared to him right now, but it was definitely headed in this direction at a moderate rate of speed. Turning his head just enough to be able to look in the direction the ki signal would appear, he was almost immediately able to pick up a white ki field in the distance. This dot grew in size and eventually he was able to pick out details like short purple hair and a sword strapped to the person's back. However it wasn't until about five seconds later that he was able to make out the rest of the details including gender but even then he couldn't identify the person. Fortunately Fate it seemed didn't want him to be in the dark about this new arrival so it had Piccolo give the guy a name.

"Trunks is back!" Exclaimed the Namek in surprise and, in doing so, caused just about everyone's gaze to be directed at the newcomer.

However it seemed as though Fate desired to top itself this time because while the eyes of everyone else were directed at him, the purple haired teenager with the same name as Bulma's baby was looking at him in shock.

What came out of Trunks' mouth next though was something so earth shattering that it almost caused him to revert back to normal by accident.

"Uncle Xander!?"

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	7. Psychological Bombshells and Blondes

Dislcaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials featured herein. They are the sole property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of them at all.

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_**Area of Rocky Outcroppings, Same Time, Perspective of Android 20**_

_This is completely __**unacceptable!**_ Android 20 thought as he watched yet another Saiyan appear that did not match anything in his databanks, _How could the information from my spy bug be this flawed!?_

It was a pair of thoughts that had been repeated multiple times since he first saw that fool Goku display an unfathomable superiority to his subordinate Android 19. Yet, each time he tried to figure out why the projected power increases for Goku and each of his friends was in error, he was unable to produce an acceptable answer. Through the spy bug, he had literally years of data on all of them to the point where he knew their habits almost as well as they themselves did. With that data, it had been child's play to predict what their training routines would be and how far such efforts would take them. He had even managed to take into account societal developments and potential political upheavals that might influence their actions. Every possible variable that might have affected their day-to-day lives and their efforts to get stronger had been taken into account in order to ensure that no possibility of failure would exist. By the time he had awakened Android 20, there had been no doubt whatsoever that victory would be his and had been entertaining multiple scenarios of how the filthy monkey would meet his end.

However, when the destroyer of his Red Ribbon Army had changed into a Super Saiyan, he had seen the first sign of a possible flaw in his plan. At first he had dismissed it as a minor discrepancy in his plans that would, at the very worst, require greater repairs than he had originally calculated. From that point onwards it had been one revision of his overall plans after another and, though he had been momentarily reassured by Goku suddenly experiencing a drop in his power output, it had been a short lived experience. With the arrival of Vegeta and an unknown Saiyan, he had been forced to re-evaluate the situation and determine whether the primary strategy that he'd developed was still valid. In the end he had decided that, despite the presence of the unknown Saiyan and Vegeta's ability to transform much as Goku had, there was still a high probability of success. After all, based on the information gathered during the clown's fight with 19, this new technique of theirs took a heavy toll on the body, leaving the user pitifully weak in only fifteen minutes. So long as Android 19 put up a strong defence, he had been sure that his subordinate could endure for that length of time and then it would have been all over for Vegeta.

As time went on, though, he became less and less sure of his prediction as the short fool showed no signs of weakening as he pummelled the robust android. However it had been the sight of Vegeta successfully tearing off 19's hands that had shocked him to the core of his being. Without the energy absorbing modules located in the hands, energy attacks were a very real threat now and, given the destructive effects illustrated in his records, this was **not** a favourable turn of events. As he had watched his subordinate run away from his target in abject terror, he had no other choice then to accept that victory may well be slipping out of his grasp. 'May' became 'was' very soon as, with a thunderous detonation of ki energy, Vegeta succeeded in obliterating his counterpart with a single attack. With that one move, he had been rendered the only android left on the battlefield with a large group of enemies as well as one enemy with apparently limitless energy desiring his destruction. Unlike how he might have appeared to those fools, it had always been his plan to withdraw from the area and regroup back at the lab. With so many flaws and unknown variables present it would have been illogical to struggle further. Thus, he had fled the scene in the hopes that he could find a way to turn the tide of battle back in his favour.

Pursuit, however, had forced him to dive into a field of rocky outcroppings and conceal himself from his pursuer while he formulated a new strategy for escape. Hearing the other Saiyan and Vegeta talking, it was clear that while they had arrived together, they were far from being close allies. He had thought at the time, as the argument had increased in volume, that he would soon have the opportunity to turn the situation to his advantage. After all, based on his data concerning Vegeta, the fool had a tendency to resort to large energy attacks when seriously provoked. This had been proven to be accurate when, not a minute later, the stunted fool had unleashed an energy attack at his friend, who evaded it at the last moment. However his turn of good luck turned out to be a trap since, just when he had begun to draw the ki into his body, the unknown Saiyan showed up out of nowhere, looking to close to hand-to-hand combat range. He had been forced to break off his feeding on the energy attack in order to once again hide amongst the rocky outcroppings.

_He is a cunning foe. More intelligent than the others, without a doubt,_ He thought as he focused on the Super Saiyan that had chopped off his hand. _That had been my reason for selecting him to be my means of returning to full strength. While there had been others closer to him, he was the largest threat next to Vegeta._

It had been sheer joy when he had succeeded in wrapping his arms and legs around the unsuspecting fool before beginning the energy absorbing process. It had seemed too good to be true when he felt the physical strength of the unknown Saiyan fade, but he should have known better than to claim victory before his prey was dead. With an explosion of energy, the unknown youth had managed to overwhelm his ki siphoning modules by generating more energy than they could cope with. That and the force behind the energy release had been sufficient to force him to release the teenager or risk critical damage to key systems. However the poor fortune did not end there for soon after the rest of Goku's friends had arrived and he once again found himself surrounded and severely outmatched. While the brief period of time in which he had been able to drain energy from the newest Super Saiyan had strengthened him significantly, it was still insufficient to guarantee him victory. Therefore he had chosen to press his assault on the newly revealed Super Saiyan in the hopes that the boy had yet to fully master the technique.

Another error for him to add to the list of miscalculations he had made in his desire to destroy Goku.

Much like the fight with 19, he had found himself to be hopelessly outclassed in almost every measurable way, no matter how cunning an attack plan he devised. With every assault, the boy surpassed him in the same way he had desired to surpass Goku when the time came to destroy the clown. That had led to his current predicament of being one hand down and at a distinct tactical deficiency. However, as he directed his attention back the discussion the fools were having, it appeared that the new arrival, the one with the sword strapped to his back, was the one who had somehow warned Goku's comrades of his plans. Mentally placing that purple haired boy just below Goku on his list of people he wanted dead, he began to take stock of all the variables his sensors could detect with their optimum range. It was then that his senses picked up the sound of an approaching air vehicle and a visual confirmation came soon after as a two seat air car flew into the battlefield. After a moment of overhearing the fools surrounding him name the people in the Capsule Corp vehicle and show concern for their well being, he knew he had just found the key to his escape.

"Perfect." He said as he calculated the optimum sequence of attacks for achieving his objective.

With this newfound ray of hope, he decided to once again voice his absolute confidence in his inevitable victory over them all.

"Enjoy this short lived victory while you are able, for soon I will unleash Androids 17 and 18 to destroy you all!!" He yelled before unleashing a barrage of energy blasts in all directions, creating a storm of light and debris that was more than sufficient for his needs.

Once the final ball of destructive force left his hand, he immediately proceeded with phase two of his plan, which involved escaping from the surrounding area by foot rather than by air. He just hoped that those fools didn't have any more surprises up their sleeves or else he may have to resort to putting his entire plan on hold for a few more years.

_CURSE YOU GOKU!! YOU AND ALL YOUR PATHETIC FRIENDS!_ He thought angrily as he sped along the ground as fast as his artificial limbs would take him.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**Back At Ground Zero of the Blast, Xander's Perspective**_

_Blast! I shouldn't have let myself get blindsided by the new kid's arrival!_ Xander thought as shielded his face from the debris kicked into the air by the android's attacks.

It had been a bit of a surprise when he'd first picked up the stranger's ki signature approaching, but that surprise had paled in comparison to the shock he'd felt both at the name of the newcomer but also what the teenager had said. 'Uncle Xander'!? To his knowledge he had no family in this dimension and that pretty much put a huge hole in the sword wielder's statement. However there had been nothing in the kid's face to indicate that he was lying. In fact the kid had looked so shocked at his being at the battleground that lying was probably as possible for him as it was for Krillin to spontaneously grow two feet taller. From there things had gone from weird to downright bizarre when the boy stated that geezer 'bot and probably lard 'bot hadn't been the androids he'd warned the others about three years ago. That was the one statement the kid had made that hadn't thrown him for a loop, but rather confirmed his own personal theory pertaining to the existence of another two androids. It just hadn't made any sense to him why androids supposedly capable of killing them all had proven to be so easy for a Super Saiyan to defeat in battle. He supposed that if he, Vegeta and Goku had never managed to become Super Saiyans, the androids would have been able to dominate them, but it would have been an iffy thing. Add that to the story he'd heard from the others about this kid not being able to handle the androids in the future and he had no choice but to come to one inescapable conclusion.

No mere Super Saiyan would be capable of defeating the real androids.

After all, by his reckoning, there should have existed three Super Saiyans in future Trunks' timeline and, if none of them could defeat the androids, then he couldn't see it happening any different in the here and now. Even if Vegita had never been informed about the coming of the androids in the other timeline, the Prick of all Saiyans would have, without a doubt, still trained recklessly to become a Super Saiyan. That said, it was well within the realm of possibility that the asshole would have pulled it off prior to the arrival of the true killer androids. Still, though, the fool had been killed. Next came that timeline's Gohan whom, without a doubt, would have managed to become a Super Saiyan, yet he too had fallen confronting the androids, albeit fifteen or so years later. Finally the fact that future Trunks was here looking to defeat the enemy by altering the past proved to him that this young Super Saiyan also knew that he had no chance of defeating the killing machines in his time period. If one added it all up, one could see that there was no way that just being a Super Saiyan would be enough to guarantee the good guys a check mark in the win column.

As the dust cleared, Xander was glad to see he had been right about the teenage version of Bulma's baby Trunks in that Future Boy would save his still young and beautiful mom from death's grasp. Yajirobi, however, had not been so lucky but from what he could sense of the fat ass' ki and with his eyes, the guy would live. Settling to the ground, he could hear Vegeta yelling overhead about the Geezer-bot escaping but he wasn't too worried about that, so long as they didn't wait too long before pursuing it. While he wanted the wind up warrior to lead them back to Gero's lab so the real deadly android duo could be destroyed before activation, giving it too big a lead could cause them to lose it entirely. He was about to go fishing for more info on the androids from Future Trunks when the kid took to the air and headed for Vegeta, who was still bellowing out to the android.

_Like any killer robot worthy of the name would actually fall for such lame taunts and lures!_ He thought with contempt at the unimaginative efforts of the Prick of all Saiyans.

As for the teenage Trunks going up after the asshole, it was probably something personal about not even putting forth the effort to save Bulma and his younger self. It was probably the kid's first intro to Vegeta under battle conditions and, just like everyone else, it couldn't have been a pleasant experience. In any case, Xander figured it'd go one of two ways: either the kid would accept that this was who his father was and get over it or he wouldn't stop getting in papa Vegeta's face trying to change him into a respectable father. Given whose genes the purple-haired kid had inherited, chances were he'd go for the latter since neither paintbrush head nor Bulma were known for giving in when they thought they were right.

"So that funny-looking old guy with the moustache was one of the androids?" Bulma asked Krillin and Gohan while baby Trunks wailed for some unknown reason.

"Yeah. Sure was Bulma," Krillin replied, apparently a little stunned at the usually gung ho scientist acting all mom like.

"Well, I think that android was Dr. Gero." Bulma said before turning her attention back to her kid. "Yes he was! He was Dr. Gero! I've seen his picture before in one of my Dad's science magazine's. Of course it looks like he's changed a lot since then." Bulma said with a recollecting look on her face before it changed back to her Mommy face, "And speaking of change—"

That was as much as he caught from her statement, since his mind automatically locked onto her first statement and ignored the latter half of it. The idea that Gero would somehow turn himself into an android was something that he hadn't even considered because, while he hadn't treated teenage Trunks' story like gospel, the androids killing their creator had been as bottom line fact. It was in perfect keeping with standard mad scientist patterns that something the psycho created would turn on him right off the assembly line. It was also odd because he couldn't figure out how the mad doctor would have been able to do such a complex and risky procedure while under the proverbial knife. Insane doctors were usually also paranoid doctors, which meant that the odds of doc Gero trusting anybody to give him the full body android makeover was extremely unlikely.

_I suppose a psycho that can create apocalypse-generating androids can also create some kind of automatic med doc bot._ he thought as he returned his attention to the world around him.

"Dr. Gero!! How could you possibly know a thing like that?!" Vegeta bellowed now back on solid ground with everyone else.

"I know what I saw, **Vegeta**!" Bulma replied, making it clear to all that she wasn't intimidated by the short Saiyan in the least, "It was a picture of that old guy in one of my Dad's science magazines and underneath it in big bold letters it said **Dr. Gero!**"

Whether she was being brave in doing that or stupid, Xander couldn't quite tell.

While the others were having a bit of trouble swallowing that bit of info, Xander wasn't quite as surprised and deferred to their resident scientific genius on this topic. Unlike the others, who only knew Bulma as a friend, he had spent two full years with the Briefs family and so had come to know each of them quite well. If Bulma said that Geezer-bot was Dr. Gero, then that was good enough for him.

"You told us a pack of lies!! Curse you, boy!!" Vegeta bellowed in anger at this new revelation directing all his frustration on the future version of Trunks Briefs, "You said Dr. Gero was destroyed by the androids he created! You didn't tell us he turned himself into one!!"

"The timeline as I know it must have shifted when I travelled here from the future." Teen Trunks said as the repercussions of his efforts hit him, "Ah man! I was afraid this might happen! But…but it was a calculated risk."

"Don't beat yourself up about it, kid. You only learned about what happened second hand through your mom or Gohan." Xander said, trying to take the heat off of the half-Saiyan swordsman, "It's easy to see how a few facts might've gotten left out or distorted a bit when they told you about that day. However I think there's a question that needs answering before we go after Gero. What did you mean when you called me 'Uncle Xander'?"

"Well, I learned about most of it from your counterpart in my time, with my Mom filling in the blanks where she needed to." Trunks replied after nodding in agreement with his statement.

"Wait just a **damn minute**! You said that Gohan was the only one to survive the androids' assault! How the hell did this fool survive!?" Vegeta asked with anger at yet another discrepancy in his future son's story.

"He survived because he stayed at Capsule Corps headquarters instead of going with the rest of you to deal with the androids. In my timeline, none of you knew anything about the androids so Xander never had a reason to train very hard or learn anything past the basics," replied the teenage son of Vegeta as his mind journeyed into his past. "He wanted to come along but you and Piccolo persuaded him to stay behind, since he wasn't good enough to be of much help and would probably only get in the way. When he learned what happened…he never forgave himself for not going with you.

"From that point on he trained with my mentor, Gohan, almost every day, determined to not only become a Super Saiyan but also somehow surpass it, until one day the androids did something no one expected. They split up." Trunks explained with some tenseness in his voice indicating what came next would not be pleasant, "Up until then, those two monsters had always travelled together but when the two of them split up, Gohan and the Xander from my world were forced to do so as well. Neither of them won their encounters with the androids and it was only because my Mom decided to play it safe and send in med-teams in time that they both survived. However while Gohan came out of the battle in one piece…Xander lost both of his legs."

This knocked everyone for a loop in more ways than one, but none of them probably experienced anything close to the level of shock that was vibrating through his body at that moment. He'd always known that there would come a fight that he might not come back from, that he'd die fighting for what he believed in, but to come back missing everything from the crotch down? That was something he'd never anticipated. Trying to imagine what it must have been like for the Xander of the future, he couldn't imagine where that guy would find the strength to live on after something like that.

"Uncle Xander was never the same after that. It got so bad that for three months straight, we had to keep someone with him at all times to keep him from committing suicide. He just couldn't bear living in a world with the androids rampaging around with him in no position to do anything about it." Trunks said with sadness in his voice that spoke of a close relationship between him and his 'uncle', "My mom did what she could to either find a way to grow them back like Piccolo could or come up with cybernetic replacements. Unfortunately, with the state the world was in and her field being more geared towards machines, the best she could do was crude cybernetic implants."

"If he got new legs then why didn't he help you and Gohan with the androids?" Tien asked, not getting why the mood hadn't gotten better with this last bit of news.

"Because no matter how my mother tried to reinforce their structural integrity and durability, Uncle Xander's implants couldn't take being exposed to a power level of over one hundred thousand. Every time she thought she'd figured out a way to make them strong enough to survive the transformation to Super Saiyan, they'd either short out or blow up within seconds of the change." Trunks explained with a grim look as he gazed upon the Xander standing in front of him, "In the end, he had to settle for one hundred thousand and decided he'd stay close to Capsule Corp HQ to act as a bodyguard. He said 'I might not be able to fight by your side to take down those factory defects, but I can make it easier for you to fight by making sure you don't worry about your mom and grandparents'."

"As interesting as this is, lets get the main question answered as quick as possible." Picollo said sounding all business as usual, "Why did you call Xander 'uncle'?"

"According to mom, it all starts with a legend from the Saiyan homeworld. The legend of the two brothers who founded the Saiyan Empire hundreds of years ago." Trunks replied as he began to settle into storyteller mode, "According to the legend, there were once two Saiyan brothers, elite fighters, both of them, who fought side by side to unite the warring tribes together to form the Empire. One was born with a massive amount of energy and a keen strategic mind while the other displayed an ability to learn from each battle that was unparalleled. Together they obliterated those that stood in the way of bringing their race together and succeeded where numerous others failed by uniting the Saiyan people.

"However the prosperity and peace didn't last long because, ten years later, the cunning bother began to grow ever more jealous of the connection his brother had with the Saiyan people. Unlike the master strategist, the prodigious student was someone the experienced warriors could relate to and the weaker ones could aspire to be more like." Trunks said as he continued to spin his tale in front of everyone, "Eventually it became too much for the jealous brother and he issued a challenge to his brother: the two of them would fight, one-on-one, with the winner becoming the sole monarch of the Saiyan Empire and the loser would be stripped of all rank, birthrights and benefits. Never again would the loser attain a position of consequence, nor would any of his descendants.

"Seeing that his brother would not be dissuaded, the cunning the brother of the people accepted the challenge. It was said that the battle lasted for two weeks straight before a victor strode out from the decimated battlefield, carrying the other over his shoulder. The brother of strategy had won." Trunks said before looking at Vegeta with honest eyes, "That brother was your ancestor, Father. King Vegeta the First. Centuries passed and eventually the story became considered little more than a fairy tale and not a very popular one amongst those that supported the royal family."

"Of course not! No loyal citizen of the Empire would believe such rubbish!" Vegeta declared, making it clear what he thought of the tale, "My ancestor forged the Empire with nothing but his own power and skill as a warrior! He needed help from no one!"

"One did. Your father's sister, Lanthir, did." Trunks said and that shut up the Prick of all Saiyans up immediately, "She had never been satisfied with grandfather Vegeta's way of ruling the Empire or how he chose subservience to Freeza rather than waging war. From what I was told, she made several attempts to take the throne through royal challenges but was defeated each time."

"I remember. The Bitch didn't know her place and it bothered Father to no end when she defied his proclamations." Vegeta said with a grin at the memory of his Aunt's defeats.

"Well, in the end she decided that if she herself couldn't sit on the throne of the Saiyan Empire, she'd put someone else there instead. Someone who'd she be controlling from behind the scenes and calling all the shots." Trunks said as he continued his story, "To this end, she sought out potential mates in the Empire, those with sufficient power and skill to defeat her brother, but none whom she spoke with would be swayed by her offer. That led to one final plan that, while not as immediate as she would have liked, would still pay off in the end. She sought out the strongest descendent of the studious brother she could find and produce a child with him."

"WHAT!?" Vegeta bellowed, clearly indicating that this was the first time he'd heard this piece of information about his Aunt Lanthir.

"It was her belief that by combining the DNA from the royal household with the genetic material from the strongest of the descendants, the child created would be more powerful than any conceived with lesser stock. It took her a while, about two years prior to Freeza's genocide attack on the Saiyan people, but eventually she found someone who met her standards." Trunks said before pausing in reluctance concerning the information about to be revealed, "The man she chose to bear a child with was Bardock, father of Goku, and leader of one of the most successful extermination squads in the Saiyan military."

"WHAT!?" Exclaimed Vegeta, who looked like his head was about to explode in disbelief.

Similar cries were expressed by the other members of the Z Warriors, but for Xander himself it was as if his entire existence had been tilted dangerously to the right. After all, if the kid was telling the truth, then not only was Vegeta his **cousin** but that idiot savant Goku was his **brother**. Neither connection was all that good for him because, while being related to the Saiyan royal family might sound nice in theory, he knew that the Prick of all Saiyans would see him as the despicable connection he had with Kakarot. Goku, on the other hand, while a skilled fighter and an all around good guy, was an idiot who almost never got any figure of speeches or any slang word you threw at him. So, to Xander at least, neither 'relative' was exactly his first choice in that area and he didn't relish the scenarios of how the future would go from here on out.

"I think you better finish your story, kid, before The Vegetable here blows a fuse." Piccolo said while looking at Vegeta out of the corner of his eyes.

"Over the next few months Lanthir skilfully manipulated Bardock into believing that she really loved him and, after a few weeks of steady meetings, she got what she wanted. Naturally she broke off the relationship with Bardock almost immediately and made certain that there'd be nothing to tie her to him at all." Trunks explained while occasionally casting glances at his father, who still looked five seconds away from literally blowing his top, "From that point on she arranged to go into seclusion in one of the mountain retreats that were used by the royal family. She did this because she wanted to minimize the risk of news of her condition reaching her brother and, thus, ruining her plans. Everything went smoothly until the last two weeks of pregnancy when her worst fear walked into the room, declaring that he knew everything. King Vegeta had arrived and, thanks to a spineless coward of a lackey, knew everything.

"From what Uncle Xander told me, from what he learned from my father, the usual punishment for a scheme like this was the execution of Lanthir, her child and everyone who played a part in the plot. After a private discussion with his Sister, though, King Vegeta surprised everyone by setting aside this punishment." Trunks said, pushing through the words of shock voiced by the others for various reasons, "While all the lackeys that helped Lanthir in her plot were executed, the lives of his sister and her child were spared. As an alternative punishment, though, the child would be inserted into the grouping of children shot off to worlds marked for cleansing and Lanthir would be exiled to the farthest region of space known to Saiyan kind. Sometimes I wonder if death would have been a kinder fate than separating a mother from her child forever."

_Is she still alive? Is my mother still alive?_ Xander thought to himself almost immediately after fully digesting what he'd been told.

He knew it was irrational and a bit odd but the idea that she might still be alive out in the universe danced around in his mind like a bunny with fifty cups of coffee in its system… or one Willow who had just looked at a single cup of coffee. It had always been a question in his mind that had refused to be silenced once it had been genetically concluded that he was one hundred percent Saiyan. Who were his parents? Had they been killed by Freeza when the Saiyan homeworld went boom? Had they somehow managed to escape and were still alive somewhere out there? With no real opportunity to find the answers to these questions with all the training he'd had to do to catch up with the others, he'd let the questions fade away to the back of his mind. Now, though, with this abridged retelling of how he came to be, along with why and by whom, he found the questions of his past once again dominating his mindscape. The idea that somewhere in the deepest reaches of space his mother might still be alive and well had him surging with the desire to seek her out at once. However the present crisis took priority in his mind and he chose to once again shelve the issue, but only until the androids had been pounded into spare parts.

"Come to think of it, why isn't Goku here?" Trunks asked now that the topic of his Uncle's parentage had been explained.

"Well, he came down with that weird heart virus. He went home to get the antidote that you gave him. I thought you knew." Krillin replied, sounding a bit surprised that the boy who'd informed them of the heart virus didn't know how it'd work out.

"I can't believe history has slipped this much!" Trunks said in amazement as yet another potential danger inherent in time travel made itself known.

"If there's one thing I've learned from my sci-fi movies back home, it's that time travel is like walking through a dark room with landmines buried randomly everywhere." Xander said, finally dragging himself out of his funk enough to focus on the task at hand, "There are just too many things that could affect how things turn out for anybody to fully grasp. For now, though, let's focus on what's important. Bulma? Was there anything in that science magazine that hinted at where Gero's lab might be?"

"Hmmm. Well now that you mention it I think I remember reading that Dr. Gero's lab was hidden in a cave somewhere just outside North City." Bulma replied after taking a moment to sift through her vast database of memories and information.

"And I'll bet it's too late to follow him there. He's probably long gone." Krillin said, sounding a little too thankful for that fact.

"Maybe not. Nobody saw him fly away, did they?" Vegeta asked, no doubt trying to sound oh so smart and superior.

"So what're you saying?" Gohan asked, showing that perhaps some of his father's lack of brain cells might have been passed down to him.

"He means that a person travelling by foot won't get as far as someone flying." Xander said as he began to look about the area in the direction of North City, "If Gero did run away rather than fly, then there's a good chance he hasn't even made it out of the immediate area just yet."

"Exactly." Vegeta said, making sure that he got the last word when it came to strategic insight he'd pointed our first.

"If that's the case then we might just have a chance to find this lab and destroy the other two androids before Gero even gets there." Piccolo said, mirroring the course of action that was taking place in the son of Lanthir's mind.

_A good plan, but somehow I think there's going to be at least one major complication._ He thought as he watched Vegeta turn to face the Namek.

"I would never do anything that cowardly. Only one course of action can possibly satisfy me!" Vegeta declared thus making his position on the matter quite clear to everyone, "I will fight these androids face-to-face and I'll break them with my bare hands!"

_Hello Major Complication! I knew this asshole was going to cause problems for everyone!_ He thought as he rolled his eyes in annoyance and disappointment, _Should've known the jackass wouldn't pass up a chance to show off in front if everyone!_

"**NOOOO**! You must never underestimate the power of these androids!" Trunks said as he rushed into prevent his father from taking off, "If you really want to destroy them then we have to do this Piccolo's way."

No one even had to look in The Vegetable's direction to know how the heir to the Saiyan throne felt about that idea. By both insulting the dumbass' strength and supporting a course of action already deemed 'cowardly' by him, Trunks had probably made a seriously poor impression on his father. Normally this would be the point where he'd step in and divulge his own little theory about the androids and how no Super Saiyan would be able to stop them once they were switched on. However, this time he would keep his mouth shut and let his fool of a cousin get himself killed by fighting the androids head on. From his point of view, Vegeta was a liability with that ego of his and it would be best from a strategic point of view to remove him from the field of battle sooner rather than later. He'd already considered this earlier and the recent revelation about him being the son of the sister of Vegeta's father only made him minimally regret tossing the stunted prick to the mechanical wolves.

Naturally the boy's words didn't do anything to change Vegeta's decision and the Prick of all Saiyans took to the air despite the advice from his son from the future. However Trunks must've inherited his mother's stubborn streak because, without missing a beat, he too took to the air and quickly placed himself back in The Vegetable's path.

"Listen! Don't go! You won't be able to handle the androids by yourself!" Trunks said almost begging his father to reconsider his chosen path, "Even with Uncle Xander here, we still have to wait for Goku!"

_Kid's got a lotta guts. Not as much brains as you'd think being Bulma's kid, but definitely a lot of guts._ Xander thought knowing what would happen next.

"Listen! I will only say this once: I **do NOT** have to wait for **Kakarot**!" Vegeta declared, showing true anger at his teenage son's interference, "I am a Super Saiyan now and I am a lot stronger than that pathetic fool could ever dream of becoming! Now get out of my way!"

With that the jackass flew past his son and continued heading in the direction of North City.

"Man! He's such a jerk!" Tien stated with a definite dislike of the royal Saiyan flying away.

"I must admit now that Vegeta's become a Super Saiyan, he may actually be stronger than Goku." Piccolo said, sounding more calm and professional, "Perhaps he does have a chance at beating the androids single-handedly."

"No. I'm afraid he doesn't have a chance." Trunks said as his emotional state caused him to drift down towards the ground, "And I know that because in my world these two androids have already killed Vegeta! Well I won't let it happen again! I won't let my father die!"

With a burst of ki and displaced air, the sword-wielding son of Bulma and Vegeta took off after his foolish father.

As for Xander, he just shook his head at all the trouble Vegeta's ego was going to cause for them and decided that at the very least he'd do what he could to keep his nephew from being blown up along with his cousin. With a surge of life energy he took off as well in order to catch up with the dysfunctional duo, hoping the entire time that he wouldn't regret teaching Vegeta the trick to becoming a Super Saiyan any more than he already did.

'_Is it possible for me to be related to a family that are not mentally impaired or just too damned stubborn for their own good?'_

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_**Exiting the Area of Rocky Outcroppings, Airborne, Ten Minutes Later**_

_Why does father have to be so __**damn STUBBORN?!**_ Trunks thought angrily has he kept pace with his father.

While he had been given a peek of what his father was like after he'd killed both Freeza and King Cold, he brushed off the Saiyan's attitude as nothing more than warrior pride. Now, though, he wondered if the man who helped bring him into the world wasn't just an arrogant gladiator who thought of nothing but proving his superiority over all others. The part of him that grew up never knowing his father wanted to believe that deep down, Vegeta was a good person and just needed help to let that part of him reach the surface. This warred with his more rational mind, which took the more realistic look at the world around him and told him that his father was nothing more than an arrogant warrior prince who cared only for himself. The two views of the man flying ahead of him made thinking of a plan of attack once they found Gero's hidden lab impossible. Normally at this point in a pursuit, he'd be following his mother's advice and planning ahead as best he could with the information that was available to him. However with the maelstrom of emotions and thoughts inside of him clamouring for his attention, the best he could do was not lose sight of his father.

It was then that he sensed a ki signal approaching from behind him and, looking over his shoulder, he saw Uncle Xander approaching quickly from the rear. That sight brought up a whole new series of thoughts and emotions inside of him as he got a good look at how his uncle looked in his prime before…before the man was forced to leave the battlefield for good. Looking back to his memories of childhood, he mentally smiled as he remembered all the times Xander had played with him and made him feel better when the depressing world around them got to be too much to bear. While his mentor, Gohan Son, had stayed with his mother Chi-Chi, Xander had pretty much lived with the Brief's family in the bunker underneath Capsule Corp HQ. While the Saiyan of two dimensions did spend the majority of his time training or helping those whose lives had been demolished by the demonic robotic duo, there were moments when he behaved like an Uncle should. When his Uncle had finally managed to transform into a Super Saiyan, with Gohan accomplishing the same less than a year later, he'd felt a gush of hope burst skyward within him. He had believed at that point, more than anything else, that with two Super Saiyans on Earth it'd only be a matter of weeks before the androids would be destroyed and peace restored.

In reality, though, the presence of two Super Saiyans on the planet Earth only minimized the destruction the androids brought about.

While it was true that the odds in terms of number of combatants were good, it quickly became clear after the first half dozen confrontations that Gohan and Xander working together as Super Saiyans were not enough to defeat the androids. In fact, if he recalled correctly, his Uncle had ranted at length one time after coming back from Ginger town about how the androids had actually had **FUN** fighting him and Gohan at the same time. The amusement the two androids had fighting two powerful opponents at the same time, however, didn't take long to wear off, since it was four months later that the inhuman monsters stopped playing with their foes and worked to destroy them instead. This led to more than one encounter with both Gohan, as well as Xander, coming to Capsule Corp HQ looking like they'd gone thirty rounds with Freeza with their power levels kept at fifty thousand. After enough beatings and close calls with death, his Uncle had decided to try and devise a new way to somehow surpass the limitations of a Super Saiyan. Every free moment as well as during training with Gohan, the man he'd come to see as a surrogate father tried his best to think up new training methods as well as ki techniques. There had been a point at which Xander had come excitedly into the dining room to tell everyone about some new revelation he had that might make a big difference. However he had been prevented from telling anyone what it was when news of two separate android attacks had come over the radio.

That had been the start of one of the darkest times in his life, second only to the death of his mentor, and he would never forget how it unfolded.

In the hours that followed the departure of his Uncle to combat the androids, no one in the bunker was able to sufficiently distract themselves from the gnawing fear in their stomachs. It manifested each and every time Xander went out to confront the androids and never went away until the strongest member of their little family returned alive. It was when night fell and no word had come, neither good nor bad, that his mother had decided to get in contact with the human rescue squads stationed in the towns nearest to the ones nearest to where Gohan and Xander had gone. It had taken some serious reasoning as well as threatening to break down their doors and kill them herself, but eventually the rescue teams agreed to head into the mentioned areas to look for the two Saiyans.

It was four and a half hours later that they first received word that both Gohan and Xander had been found.

When they had heard of their condition the entire Briefs family shot off in their hover car as fast as they could to be by the side of the two heavily wounded warriors.

Both Saiyans had been rushed to the best medical facility in the area, with the Briefs family pulling in every favour they had ever been owed in order to get the best of the best to work on their ailing friends. Gohan had been lucky, for the most part, and only had some moderate scarring and fractured bones to recover from, which, thanks to his Saiyan DNA, was easily done. For Xander, though, things had been worse, much worse, for not only had the female android beaten him senseless, but she had also so badly mangled his legs that even cutting edge medical tech was helpless to repair it. In the end, in order to save his life, they had been forced to amputate the damaged limbs completely from the middle of his thighs down. When he had woken up, it had taken his Uncle less than five seconds to notice the missing sensations and two more seconds to deduce what had been done.

The look on Xander's face at that point still haunted his dreams from time to time although he did his best to reassure himself that in the waking world his Uncle had come to terms with his condition.

It hadn't been easy though.

For almost a full year his Uncle's depression had threatened to swallow him whole and only with his presence, as well as Gohan's, was this dark feeling noticeably lessened. However his mother had been worried that this might not be enough to eventually heal the damage done to Xander through the loss of his legs, so she had decided to try and build him new ones. Ever the mechanical genius, she had come up with several versions and had even taken care to make the outer casings of the cybernetic limbs look as human as possible. While these inventions did turn out to help a great many of the humans of the world recover some kind of mobility after being injured by the androids, they were insufficient for Xander. While they did give him mobility close to what he had with his natural limbs, they could not endure the stress levels when the Saiyan increased his power level to one hundred thousand or greater. Again and again she redesigned the legs, each time incorporating more durable materials and energy conduits, but each one failed to stay functional past one hundred thousand.

In the end it had been Xander who had convinced the brilliant daughter of the founder of Capsule Corp to abandon her efforts to create the perfect pair of cybernetic limbs for him. He had said that while he would like nothing better than to get back into the fight and deal some major payback to the androids, he knew that was no longer possible. He said he'd stick around Capsule Corp HQ as a bodyguard and a way of evacuating as many people as possible if the androids showed up, but from that day on he'd leave fighting the androids to Gohan. The look on the face of his Uncle as he had said those words had been painful to see and only strengthened his hatred of the two mechanical monstrosities. That had been what provoked him into wanting to learn how to fight rather than look for a technological solution to the current state of the world like his mom had chosen to do.

_Didn't turn out anywhere close to what I had in mind._ He thought as he recalled his previous battles with the androids of his time period.

Prior to his achieving the Super Saiyan state, he'd been little more than an annoyance to the androids and hadn't been able to land a single blow on either of the machines unless they allowed it. Due to his weakness, his mentor Gohan had lost his right arm, effectively eliminating a quarter of his fellow half-Saiyan's offensive/defensive capabilities. It was his weakness, his inability to become a Super Saiyan in time, which had brought about the demise of his teacher at the hands of the androids. Gohan had known going in that the fight would be different and had knocked him out when his guard had been down. It was only later, when he had been woken up by the thundering clouds and the rain, that he found the body of the man that had helped him get stronger lying lifelessly in a pool of water. The trauma of seeing someone so close to him dead and knowing that it was his fault had been the final straw for him. With a scream of rage and pain, he finally broke through the wall that had kept him from the power of a Super Saiyan.

_I was so sure of myself then._ Trunks thought to himself as he made a slight adjustment in his flight path, _I thought that with the power of a Super Saiyan and my righteous rage behind me, I could take both of those abominations down on my own._ _I was such a __**FOOL!**_

His confidence in his newfound power had lasted exactly two point three minutes into the fight before the sledge hammer of reality showed him just how far above him the deadly duo were in terms of speed, strength and skill. It had been sheer luck on his part that he'd survived the battle and it had been that wake up call that forced him to accept that directly opposing the androids wouldn't work. As soon as he'd recovered, he'd decided to give his mother's plan for undoing all the damage a try and that had pretty much led him to where he was right now. As far as plans went, it wasn't quite the success he'd hoped it'd be, but since Piccolo and the others were still alive, it did have something going for it. Seeing Xander among those gathered to fight the androids and seeing him as a Super Saiyan five years before he'd managed to pull it off in his timeline was also good. Also, while not entirely good, the fact that Goku was still alive, albeit suffering from the heart virus, was also a ray of hope for him. However there were also some downsides to all of this, with the biggest being the presence of Dr. Gero in an android body and another android that looked nothing like the ones from his time period.

_I have a bad feeling about this!_ He thought as they reached the halfway point to North City.

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_**Thirty Minutes Later, The Mountains Surrounding North City**_

_Damnit! This is taking too long!_ Xander thought as he continued to search the area of the mountain range he'd selected as the most likely location of Gero's lab, _If we don't find the lab soon that nut job in a jar is going to get to his lab and activate those androids!_

Ever since he'd arrived with Vegeta and Trunks, they'd been combing their respective sectors of the mountain range looking for the lab of the mad doctor that contained two unstoppable, killer androids. While he suspected that the other two had just chosen random areas, he had taken some time to think things through and then chose the area he felt was the safest bet. He'd chosen an area that seemed to be sparsely populated or that didn't receive a high level of human traffic, since it would make sense that Gero would want to keep the number of potential witnesses to a minimum. He also chose an area that while close to the main roads wouldn't be so close that someone might be able to see the entrance to the lab from the road. He also looked to see where the density of the mountains was greater and where it was minimal, since such factors would contribute to the lab's defensibility as well as obscurity. All these sort of factors went through his head as he used his keen Saiyan eyes to pick apart everything within his field of vision for some promising sign. However, in the past twenty minutes of searching, he'd had nothing to show for his efforts whatsoever and it was beginning to get on his nerves quite a bit.

He didn't know how far ahead of the chrome domed android he and the others were, or if it was Gero who'd arrived in North City ahead of them, but he sincerely doubted that they had enough time that they could afford to take their time searching. While the android might have been travelling on foot most of the way here, there were a few areas he could not have crossed without flying. Add it all up and he figured they had at best another forty minutes before the good doctor would reach his lab and then it'd be all over. While he respected each member of the Z-Warriors, he knew that, as it stood at this very moment, none of them would stand a chance of Android's seventeen and eighteen were activated. Even if they all attacked the mechanized murderers head-on, they wouldn't be able to put a dent in their pseudo-flesh hides. The only hope they had at this point was finding and destroying the androids before they came online, but it was looking less and less likely to happen anytime soon.

Just as he was about to move on to the next section of the mental grid he had mapped out in his mind, he felt a veritable series of ki pulses like Morse code. Sharpening his ki sensing abilities, he immediately discovers that it was Krillin who was sending out the ki pulses in a quick and excited manner. He had felt Krillin, Piccolo and Tien arrive shortly after he had but had not bothered to hook up with them, since the plan for handling the situation was common sense. Seeing as how this was the first any member of that trio had fired off these ki pulses, it was obviously a signal of some kind and there was only one reason why such a signal would be put out. Firing up his ki field, Xander flew off as fast as he could towards Krillin's location, knowing that the reason for the signal was that Krillin had found Gero's lab. He arrived just as Piccolo and Tien did, since the area he had chosen to search had been roughly the same distance away from Krillin as there's had been.

"See there it is! That opening in the mountain is the entrance." Krillin said, indicating the small square shaped cave opening in the side of the mountain in front of them.

"Right! Good job Krillin!" Tien said with respect towards his friend for finding their objective.

"Ah, thanks Tien." Krillin said without taking his eyes off the entrance to the lab.

"You can pat each other on the back later." Piccolo said with a smile of triumph on his face, "Right now we have work to do! C'mon!"

With that Tien and Piccolo shot off towards the cave entrance and he was about to follow when he noticed that Krillin wasn't following them. Now he supposed that this could simply be the bald guy's fear of confronting the androids, since, aside from that idiot Yamcha, he was probably the weakest of the Z-Warriors. However on the chance that there was something more to it, he hung back as well since people who are afraid tend to have better survival instincts than those that are not.

"Hey guys! Hold on!" Krillin cried out as he reached out with one arm as though he could perform some technique to freeze them in place.

"What's the matter now, Krillin?" Tien asked with his earlier respect turning into annoyance.

"Heheheh. I forgot to mention one thing. Dr. Gero beat me here." Krillin replied sounding like he'd like nothing more to be anywhere but where he was right then.

"WHAT?!" Exclaimed Tien, unable to believe how his friend could have left that little fact out of his initial report.

"I-I'm sorry." Krillin said, sounding genuinely sorry that he'd screwed up like this.

"YOU SHOULD'VE TOLD US BEFORE KRILLIN!!" Piccolo yelled before he once again fired up his ki field and shot off towards the lab entrance.

Following the three of them as they entered the cave proper, Xander immediately spotted the reinforced steel door with keypad at the far end that confirmed that this was Gero's lab.

_Either that or some other crazy recluse has a hidden lab in the middle of nowhere and Gero's just paying him/her/it a visit._ He thought sarcastically showing that he didn't believe a word of it.

Once they reached the door, Piccolo, Tien and Krillin began to try and use brute, physical force to open the door but to no effect. Not that this surprised him all that much, since he heavily suspected that the good doctor would have built his lab to withstand everything shy of a nuclear explosion. Obviously, while these three weren't mentally retarded like Goku, they lacked the brain cells to figure out that hitting the doors down wasn't going to cut it.

"No good! It won't budge!" Krillin said as he strained to push the doors open with both arms.

"Step aside. My turn." Piccolo said who sounded like he had something up his sleeve that would prove more effective than physical force.

"Oh I see you've found it," Came Vegeta's arrogant voice, making it known to all that the shit had officially hit the fan.

To this none of them said anything, although he was heavily tempted to sneak up on the Prick and knock him out before he could fuck things up. Piccolo, however, chose to put his trump card into play as he extended his left arm towards the door in obvious preparation for an energy attack of some kind.

"Hurry up Namek! But don't destroy those androids before I get a chance to fight them!" Vegeta ordered as though everyone present was under his command.

"Piccolo! Don't listen to him! He doesn't know what he's saying!" Trunks shouted, clearly not wanting the green skinned alien to be swayed by Vegita's words.

"Be quiet!" Vegeta shouted over his shoulder with annoyance that could only come from someone doing a good impression of a broken record.

He was about to brace himself for Piccolo's attack when he heard the irate voice of Geezer-bot, aka Dr. Gero, come through the sturdy steel door. While he couldn't make out everything that'd been said, Xander heard enough to realize that they were too late and that Androids Seventeen and Eighteen were now online.

_SHIT! FUCK! SHIT __**AND**__ FUCK!_ He thought as he realised that as of that moment the good guys were official between a rock and a hard place.

While this course of action wasn't entirely unexpected, he had really hoped that for once the good guys could get a lucky break and actually thwart an apocalypse without getting into a messy death ridden battle. However it seemed as though situations like this worked the same in this dimension as it did back in Sunnydale, in that Mr. Murphy was running the show from beginning to end.

"W-what do we do now you guys!? He's activated the androids!!" Krillin exclaimed, obviously imagining his own impending death.

"Get out of my way you idiots!!" Vegeta growled as he extended his left arm in order to blast the door down himself.

"Don't do it! We can't beat the androids without Goku." Trunks said in a last ditch effort to dissuade his father from doing something they'd all regret, "STOP IT! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW POWERFUL THEY REALLY ARE!"

"Too late, kid! HAAAAAH!" Vegeta stated before firing off a potent blue blast of ki at the door to Gero's laboratory.

Under The Vegetable's onslaught the door lasted five seconds before it lost its shape and fell to the ground, sending up clouds of dirt and dust to temporarily obscure the vision of everyone in the area. It took a while but eventually the dust and dirt settled enough that he was able to get his first real look at the androids fated to either be defeat by the forces of good or floor the world with death as well as destruction. The first that became visible looked like a teenage boy who couldn't have been older than him in terms of appearance. Dressed in jeans, sneakers, a black shirt with a white one underneath and a bandana around his neck, the android didn't look particularly threatening, but then Xander looked it in the eyes. There was no remorse there, no sense of humanity, just a cold and merciless digital spirit that did what it wanted because no one could stop it. As the last of the cloud of dust settled down, the next android became visible showing itself to be a stunning blue eyed blonde that he might've considered asking out if she wasn't a killing machine with him on her hit list. Brown cowboy boots, dark blue spandex leggings, a sky blue jean skirt, a black tank top with striped long-sleeved shirt underneath and topped off with a sleeveless jean vest was her complete ensemble. He had to admit that it looked good on her and, that he might just have to compliment Gero on his excellent design when it came to her… before the madman was blasted into a million pieces.

"Well, well! What have we here that has you all so nervous?" Vegeta said mockingly, clearly not impressed with what he was seeing, "A boy with a long hair and a scarf around his neck and a beautiful young girl! I take it these are the scary androids we've heard so much about?"

"That's them." Trunks replied with rising fear in his voice.

Looking at the duo in front of him, he could see how Vegeta could dismiss them as threats, but unlike the Prick of all Saiyans, he was more observant and respectful of the phrase 'never judge a book by its cover'. Looking at the two, Xander decided to try and get a feel for how deadly the two machines would be in a fight based on their appearance in the hopes of getting some insight on what might happen if he had to face one. Both had a slim sleek build that implied great speed as well as agility, making it a necessity on his part to combine offence with defence simultaneously if he fought them. Physically, though, they didn't look very well protected in terms of armour or sturdy materials, which meant that if he managed to hit them, it wouldn't be too difficult to inflict debilitating damage to them. As far as power was concerned, there were no obvious signs like large muscles to indicate just how much damage a hit from them could do, but that only made him all the more determined to not get hit at all. Gero might have been insane, but he was not foolish enough to think that speed, agility and limited durability would be enough to kill Goku. No these were most likely just as strong as Trunks had claimed they were and definitely enough to wipe the floor with even a Super Saiyan of Goku's skill and power.

_This is __**SO**__ not of the __**good!**_ He thought as he waited to see what would happen next.


	8. Differences of Opinion

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials featured in this fanfic. They belong to their creators and associated companies. I am making no money off of this whatsoever so suing me isn't going to get you as much money as you might think.

Note—For all you canon mongers who absolutely detest authors who don't follow canon (manga or anime) I suggest you stop reading now because I am about to alter a major part of established canon for the DBZ universe.

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_**The Entrance to Gero's Lab, Thirty Seconds After Vegeta Blew the Door Down**_

"They're androids? They look just like humans to me." Krillin said, not quite believing that the two new people before him were the evil androids they'd all been warned about.

"Don't be fooled by the way they look!" Trunks growled as he tensed up in preparation for a fight, "They're both deadly and they're stronger than **all** of us!"

_Kid's right about that._ Xander thought and, with every little nuance he picked out of the way the two teenage androids looked, he began to feel more and more uneasy.

Everything he could see with his eyes told him that these two were deadly in a way neither the Z-Fighters nor himself could compete with. Still, he wasn't going to show any fear, not like pussies he knew back home who'd be begging for their miserable lives right now, he was going to stand strong and, if nothing else, spit in their artificial eyes before he died. How soon it was before he did that, though, was entirely dependant on how things proceeded from here. He knew that both Piccolo and Trunks wanted to back off until Goku was back on his feet. Tien and Krillin would probably follow their lead since the opinions of a Super Saiyan as well as the Namek would carry significant weight with them. Vegeta, of course, would play the role of the idiot and choose to stay and fight both androids in a 'kill or be killed' fight with absolutely no rules. As for him, he'd probably put some distance between himself and whatever fight Vegeta got into so as to analyse the androids' fighting skills under real battle conditions. He'd done all he could trying to measure their strength based on appearances alone but if he really wanted to prepare, he needed to see how they fought. Once he had a better grip on how they fought, he could begin to modify his own fighting style to minimize the effectiveness of their strengths while maximizing the damage the blows he landed had on them.

"Well! Goku's friends are very determined to stop us." Gero began to growl out while obviously showing signs of anxiety, "But they will not. We will destroy them just as they destroyed Android 19."

"Android 19? So you built him after all." The teen male android stated with a mildly interested tone of voice.

"Yes." Gero replied sounding only moderately willing to answer what questions his creations had.

"I see. But he was of a different design than 18 or myself." The male android, 17, obviously, by process of elimination, "He was an energy absorbing model, was he not?"

"Yes he was." Gero said as though believing it'd be easier to answer all their questions up front rather than try and shut them up.

"How very interesting. And you'd chosen the same model for yourself?" Android 18, the babe, asked as though all the pieces were falling into place in her mind, "You thought that an energy absorbing model like 19 would be easier to control?"

"Yes." Gero replied sounding like he was reaching the end of his patience with his creations.

"And now he's been destroyed!" she said, sounding like she was mocking both Gero's choice of android body designs as well as his choice of subordinates.

The anger was visibly growing on Gero's face, with every question that as asked the mad scientist was losing his self-control, and all too soon the clichéd 'creations-turning-on-their-creator' scene would occur. It was the one part of Trunks' warning that he knew for a fact would occur since it would inevitably lead to the Z-Warrior's fighting the androids then the wind up toys going on a worldwide rampage. In a way he wasn't sure whether he wanted Gero to die or not, since a madman with a plan would have been easier to predict than two androids just looking for entertainment. Still, he guessed that there were pros and cons to just about every choice and it'd be safer to let things play out as they would for the time being. Once Gero was out of the way and he'd gotten a chance to see how the androids fought, he could start making plans for their eventual defeat.

"What are they up to?" Krillin asked, sounding completely unhappy with the events unfolding before his very eyes.

"I'd say that any chance of Gero getting back up from those two is slowly turning to shit right now." He replied even though it was probably a rhetorical question on Krillin's part.

"That is enough questions for now!" Gero yelled his ability to put up with inquiring subordinates finally reaching its limits, "I order you to destroy these intruders!"

"Be quiet, old man! We will deal with them when we are ready." Android 17 said with deadly defiance of his creator.

_You'd think Gero would have the smarts to hardwire obedience into his creations._ He thought with a mental rolling of his eyes, _But I guess going nuts kinda makes you miss the obvious!_

"What did **you SAY!?!**" Gero bellowed in both anger as well as disbelief at the actions his creations were taking.

It was clear that right about then the former genius scientist of the Red Ribbon army was beginning to truly realize the precarious situation he was in. Better late then never. Whatever programming or measures the good doctor had employed to ensure the obedience of his creations had obviously proven ineffective. Also, judging from the glances the old man was shooting a smashed controller on the floor, the idiot's back up plan had also gone down the toilet.

It wouldn't be long now.

"I really wish you had not smashed the controller!" Gero growled in one last attempt to appear on top of the situation and failing dismally.

"Heh! Yes that's too **bad,** isn't it!" Android 18 said as she stomped right over the remains of the controller before turning her attention to the casket to her right, "Planning to use it for spare parts? He's kind of lacking in the looks department, isn't he?"

It was only when he got a better look at the casket Android 18 had approached that he realised that it was remarkably similar to the ones he presumed she and her 'brother' had stepped out of. Running that through his Murphy's Law decryption machine told him that things could very well get nasty in the next few seconds if his hunch was correct. From the way she was mentioning spare parts and its similarity to the other chambers, it was entirely possible that another killer android rested in that coffin.

_NOT __**GOOD!**_ He thought as he prayed that whatever resided in the number 16 casket was a weaker model than 17 and 18.

"I'd like to see what other kind of modifications you made to him, doctor." Android 18 said, sounding a little too intrigued.

"You stay away from there!! Do not open that chamber!!" Gero ordered even though it was obvious to everyone else in the room that he may as well have been whistlin' Dixie for all the good it did him, "I order you to stay away from Android 16!!"

"Go on. I think it is time we wake up our sleeping friend." Android 17 said as he strode closer to the chamber in question.

"Right." Android 18 said with a mischief-laden smile.

"NO! Do not listen to him! I have not completed his programming yet!" Gero bellowed before turning to Android 17.

It was tough to say whether Gero was saying this just as a means of keeping a potentially malfunctioning android offline or if he just didn't want his rebellious creation problem getting any bigger. In both cases it also spoke much about the sleeping killing machine's power level since, if it was weaker than 17 and 18, then Gero wouldn't be making such a fuss over it. So, all in all, the situation was definitely not working out the way he'd hoped it would and it had the potential to actually get worse.

"What?" Piccolo asked, presumably rhetorically, at this latest revelation.

"Something's not right in there." Krillin said sounding like his anxiety level was getting higher by the minute.

"You got that right." Tien said sounding not so thrilled with how things were developing.

"Guys! Now would be a good time to attack." Krillin suggested, which was at odds with the yellow streak that was growing on the bald man's back, "Before they get their acts together."

Not that Krillin was exactly a coward but, until then, it had been pretty clear that his nervousness and growing fear had been in control. With such feelings going through his body, it would have been more appropriate for the short warrior to make a run for it or suggest a strategic retreat. Despite his own feelings on running away, Xander was of the mind that it might not be such a bad idea considering the conclusions he had come to about the androids. If 17 and hot 18 were as dangerous as he thought, then fighting them would be suicide. However convincing everyone else would be a struggle in and of itself.

"Step aside! I don't need your help to defeat these three." Vegeta commanded obviously still living under the delusion that his recent ascension to Super Saiyan somehow made him unbeatable.

The fool!

"The 16 model is just a prototype. If you activate it there is a possibility it will malfunction." Gero said sounding more reasonable and less frantic than before.

"Heh. Let's find out." Android 17 said sounding like he wasn't worried in the least.

"NO 18!!" Gero bellowed before running over and attempting to stop her with his sole remaining hand.

However, grabbing her by the upper arm, it seemed was not the way to get on the blonde 'bot's good side.

"I think it's time to send you to the scrap heap!" 18 declared before throwing Gero off her like he was a mere toddler rather than a model of android capable of laying waste to an entire city.

With all the grace of a sack of potatoes the former lead scientist of the Red Ribbon Army hit the ground bringing the madman's earlier displeasure at the behaviour of his two creations.

"Now where was I?" Android 18 asked rhetorically as she walked around to the other side of the metal chamber casket, "If 16 is just a prototype I wonder why you kept him for so long. You destroyed all the other androids up to 15, didn't you?"

"I was planning to repair him someday." Gero replied before his anger got the better of him, "Listen! I made you and I am telling you that if you activate 16 **you WILL REGRET IT!!**"

"We will regret it? I doubt that old man." Android 17 said dismissively before looking a little too intently at the chamber for a few moments, "Heheheheh. According to this data, I am much stronger than this model is."

"It **makes NO difference!**" Gero growled out at his most rebellious creation.

"Hmmm. 18, go ahead and activate him. Now." Android 17 said turning slightly to his partner.

"I am your creator! You will do as I tell you to do!" Gero roared believing that his status as their creator somehow gave him power over them, "Stop meddling with Android 16 NOW or I will force you to stop!"

"Your controller is broken." Android 17 said pointing out the obvious flaw in Gero's train of thought.

"Then I will make another!" Gero retorted unwilling to give up his position as master.

Neither of the androids seemed all that worried about this and it was easy to see why. Given the state of Gero's android body and how easily 18 had brushed him aside earlier, it was obvious that the duo of destruction had no intention of letting Gero live to see them depart from the lab. They were just toying with him, letting the fool believe he actually stood a chance, before finishing him off. For a moment Xander contemplated trying to save Gero, since having the creator of the androids at his disposal could prove useful in taking down his defiant creations later. However, in the end, he chose not to since he wouldn't put it past the scientist to try and take advantage of the Good Guy resources to regain control of his creations rather than destroy them. All that he would do where Gero was concerned was sit back and watch the fool get the end he deserved.

"FOR THE LAST TIME!" Gero yelled as he turned to 18 who was one button press away from activating Android 16, "DO NOT RELEASE HIM!!"

It was then that the killing blow was delivered in the blink of an eye as the first indicator of the killing potential of Android 17 was revealed. In a burst of speed, the dark haired male android shot forward towards Gero and thrust his left arm through the mad doctor's back and then out through his chest. Most of the other Z-fighters seemed shocked at this but Xander was at a loss to understand why. After all it had been a part of Trunks' story three years ago that moments after the killer androids were brought online they would kill their creator. Sure, the info on future events had slipped up a little bit, but it still shouldn't have been that great a shock to them. Dismissing their reactions, he focused his attention on the events taking place on the other side of the lab.

"What have you done?" Gero said with some difficulty before looking back at 17, "How dare you!? Don't you know!? I gave you life and I can take it away!!"

This statement was met with a devastating jumping roundhouse kick to Gero's head that succeeded in completely separating the madman from his android body. This second example of what 17 could do combined with the first had him worried because, in both instances, while he could see what was going on, it put the android on a surprisingly high level. At a guess, he'd have to say that Android 17 was currently on par with Piccolo or Tien in terms of skill, power and speed. Considering how hard the two warriors had probably trained to raise their power levels to the best of their ability in three years, it made the potential outcomes of this situation grim indeed. The whole point of their rigorous training regime was to make sure that when the androids appeared they would easily be two to three times stronger than they would have been without Trunks' warning. With that much of a power increase, it had been their hope that they'd be strong enough to defeat the mechanical murderers when they appeared. From the looks of things, though, it would appear as though all their training had been for naught.

The head of Doctor Gero flew through the air before it came to a rest at the entrance to the lab, right in front of Krillin, the poor guy, he knew that the curtain was getting ready to close on this segment of the little drama before them.

"GRRR! That does it! Now I am mad!" Gero growled with his voice sounding more mechanical than ever before.

Not exactly the most profound last words a person could have said, but that is what they were for less than four seconds after the madman uttered them Android 17 flew through the air to deliver the killing blow. Coming down from above, the killer android stomped onto his creator's head, causing it to pop like a balloon filled with red Kool-Aid. 17 looked up at them and there was no trace of remorse in them, no sign of emotional distress, but rather a grin of satisfaction at what he'd just done.

"Did you see that?" Krillin asked from his new hiding spot behind Tien, "He squashed him like a **bug**!"

"Actually I think it was more like a piece of rotten fruit or a water balloon, myself." Xander said with his opinion of Krillin dropping a notch or two.

The android then did something that indicated the warm up that was the murder of Dr. Gero was over and now the killing machine wanted to move onto the real deal. With a simple 'come here' gesture, 17 indicated that he wanted Krillin to come out of his little hiding place and approach him. Sadly the idiot didn't figure out who the machine wanted to talk with.

"Uh, Vegeta, I think he wants to talk to you." Krillin said with a 'better you than me' tone of voice present for all to hear.

"You with the shiny head. Come here." Android 17 said continuing with his 'come here' gesture.

"You talkin' to me?" Krillin asked clearly not connecting the dots that were plain to see.

_I guess I better step in before the idiot wets himself!_ He said as he walked over and placed himself between the Android and Krillin.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid shorty here wouldn't be much of a workout for you, tin man." He said, crossing his arms across his chest, "If you're looking for some real fun, why don't you try mixing it up with a Saiyan."

"Well said, Xander!" Vegeta said, putting in his own two cents and confirming his own opinion about the superiority of the Saiyan race.

Sadly this seemed to ruin the mechanical monster's bit of fun with Krillin as, with a slight look of disappointment, the male android turned away from them before heading over to join his 'sister'. Now came the decision about whether or not to allow the two androids to awaken a third and, judging from how worked up Trunks sounded, it was clear the teenage Saiyan/Human hybrid would be taking action any minute now. Considering how deadly one android had proven himself to be, tangling with three that were just as powerful or close enough did not sound like a wise strategic move. Xander carefully began to raise his own ki level as well deciding that he'd back Trunks to the hilt in whatever the young man chose to do. With a little luck between the two of them, they just might be able to destroy Android 16 before the unknown monster could wake up to strut his stuff.

"Open the chamber." Android 17 said to his partner/sister and it was then that Trunks' power level began to skyrocket.

_Time to back him up!_ He thought as he too began to dramatically increase his power level.

"If they set that android free it will be the end for all of us!! NOOOOO!!!!" Trunks bellowed as he went Super Saiyn and amped his power up to the max.

Following suit, Xander too transformed into the legendary state of fighting prowess that was the sovereign birthright of his people before pushing his power level up towards his max as well. Matching Trunks move for move, he brought his hands up before him and, with the determination to destroy at least one of the Androids, he unleashed a golden energy blast that amazingly enough wound up flying side by side with the one fired by the boy from the future. With a blast that was a little higher than the max possible with a tanker full of TNT, the mountain was destroyed with the rest of them just barely managing to put some distance between ground zero and them. He'd bugged out the moment he was satisfied that the blasts would hit their target and was somewhat happy to see that the others had done the same. Looking back down at the cloud of dust and dirt billowing up from the former location of Gero's lab, Xander looked carefully with his Saiyan eyes for any sign of movement. While he very much doubted that all three androids had been destroyed, he would consider the attacks ki well spent if it managed to take out at least the sleeping one.

"Hey Trunks! How about a little more warning before you do something like that?!" Krillin yelled from his airborne position.

For the most part, this comment was ignored because his Saiyan eyes spotted something amidst the cloud of smoke that made him growl in frustration.

"Bad move! What did you go and do that for you idiots?" Vegeta asked, sounding distinctly unhappy with the actions taken by the two other Saiyans present.

"What's wrong?" Trunks asked obviously not bothering to inspect the results of the blast.

"Well look! Down there." Vegeta said indicating an area not far from ground zero.

"I don't understand. There's no way anyone could survive that!" Trunks said as the smoke and dust began to clear up, "That was my most intense blast and, added to Uncle Xander's, it should have been more than enough!"

"Looks like you spoke too soon." Vegeta said and the arrogant prick right.

Standing on a flat surface of rock, completely unharmed and with the chamber also untouched by the blast, were the mechanical duo prophesized to lay waste to the future of this planet. With 17 standing with his arms crossed over his chest and 18 holding the chamber above her head with **one** arm, it was clear that even a double whammy from two powered up Super Saiyans was insufficient to harm them, much less destroy them. It all but confirmed his original suspicions, that a Super Saiyan simply wasn't enough to destroy the deadly duo, leaving him at a loss to come up with a plan B.

"Now that's too bad! By doing that you two have just shown them how weak you both are." Vegeta said with contempt and disrespect to his son from the future as well as his 'partner'.

_More like how weak we all are._ He thought as he realized that if two massive blasts from a pair of Super Saiyans couldn't harm them, then a single golden haired Saiyan would be nothing to them much less a human or a Namek.

Watching as the female android roughly threw down the casket in front of her, Xander could only look on in dread as he watched 18 press the button on the side of the chamber causing the lid to begin to open. Unfortunately for the lid it looked like the blonde wasn't willing to wait for it to finish opening on its own since the moment the air tight seal as broken the blonde bombshell kicked it off to the side.

"Oh no! They did it! Great! Now we'll have to fight another one!" Krillin griped from his spot amongst the group.

Watching as the newest mechanical minion of Gero sat up and then got itself out of the chamber, Xander knew that in this case that this one was different. Where 17 and 18 had their power concealed beneath the façade of two teenage humans, this android's power was clearly illustrated in his size. Easily taller than even Piccolo, the android was built muscle-wise to look like a football player or a professional body builder and had a weird haircut on the top of his head. Clad in a combination of black bodysuit, green boots, green arm braces and green torso armour, the number 16 killing machine was definitely intimidating. However it also begged the question about what the point was with such an obvious strength implying appearance given how the power of 17 and 18 was hidden from obvious sight. Perhaps the big brute was quicker or more agile than he looked?

_Whatever the case, it looks like one way or another things have gone from an everyone-against-two to an everyone-on-three situation._ He thought with some annoyance at how things were progressing.

Looking down at the terrible trio, he watched as all three of them rose into the air without the benefit of generating a ki field or using the flying technique. For a moment he thought that the trinity of technical terrors were about to go on the offensive but, to his slight surprise, they instead flew away. Fortunately it took him less than a moment to figure out the most likely reason why and it irked his Saiyan pride quite a bit in realizing it.

_They don't think we're even worth wasting energy over to kill!_ He thought angrily at the dismissive gesture he'd just been dealt, _They don't think we're a threat to them in the least!_

Even though his mind had come to the conclusion that no one from a Super Saiyan on down would stand a chance against the androids, it pissed him off to be so summarily dismissed. They could have at least knocked them around a little or given them a chance to go down fighting! As far as he was concerned, this was strike one against the androids and if they got all three, he was tossing caution out the window so he could teach them a lesson about respecting one's opponents.

"Hey! They're leaving!" Krillin yelled, pointing out the obvious like the fool he was, "Good riddance! We're safe."

"But where do you think they're going?" Tien asked showing that he actually had a decent brain beneath that three-eyed chrome dome, "Should we follow them?"

"If they're going in that direction, then they're not going to South City." Piccolo said, sounding a little insulted by the dismissive departure himself, "That's the other way."

"I've got it! They're—" Krillin exclaimed but only got this much out before being interrupted.

"They've decided to go ahead with their mission to kill Goku." Xander said before turning to Krillin, "Next time you open your mouth to say something, at least make it original and a bit insightful. You've been nothing but Captain Obvious for the entire day."

"I guess but do you still think those three androids will follow Dr. Gero's orders now that he's dead?" Tien asked, bringing up a decent enough point.

"I don't **care** where they went! I'll track them down **myself!**" Vegeta growled out, sounding like he was a rumbling volcano about to erupt, "They're cowards! They left because they were afraid of me!"

_GREAT! We got Captain Obvious on one side and General Idiot on the other!_ He thought with a disbelieving shake of his head, _Oh yeah! This is definitely the team I'd depend on to save the world!_

"And they should be!" Vegeta said with his earlier cockiness back in full force as he powered up to a Super Saiyan.

However, much like everyone else, Trunks had quickly clued into what was about to happen and, like an idiot who tried to convince a cat to give up pursuit of a ball of catnip, the sword-wielding half-Saiyan put himself directly in his father's path.

"NO! STOP! Stay here! Don't go after them!" Trunks pleaded with his arms spread wide to block his father's advance.

"You expect **me** to wait for Kakarot?!" Vegeta said with remarkable calmness as he chose to humour his son.

"Kakarot? Oh! You mean Goku!" Trunks said obviously not familiar with Goku's Saiyan name, "That's right! We need him for this battle! We're only strong enough if we all stay together!"

_Ouch! Definitely not the thing to say to someone __**obsessed**__ with surpassing Kakarot! _He thought since he knew all too well what would happen next.

"Heheheheheh! Sure! Let's wait for Kakarot!" Vegeta said without an ounce of sincerity in his voice, "I mean, wouldn't it be easier if we all just joined up with the androids instead! He's history! Now get out of my way before you get hurt!"

The words of the Prince of all Saiyans did little to persuade the hybrid and, more than likely, only added fuel to the teenager's determination to stop his father from doing something stupid.

_Good luck with that!_ He thought believing wholeheartedly that the only thing that could keep Vegeta from doing something stupid was a through beat down.

"And let me finish them off, by **myself**, without Kakarot!!" Vegeta said his patience with his son from the future reaching its end.

"You can't! If you face the androids alone you will be destroyed for sure!" Trunks yelled back, still determined to sway his father with words, "You must listen to me! Stay here!"

This was apparently as much perceived cowardice as Vegeta was willing to tolerate hearing from his once and future son. With a thunderous punch buried deep into the youth's gut, Vegeta took off in the direction that the androids had gone, leaving the sword wielding half-Saiyan to try to get some air back into his lungs. Xander could have told the kid that that was going to happen but he supposed that actually experiencing it would ensure that the message hit home better. Naturally everyone flew in to assist Trunks with many of them, with the exception of him and perhaps Piccolo, surprised at what the short Saiyan had done.

"Are you okay?" Krillin asked as he attempted to help the purple haired youth straighten out a bit.

"P-please stop him! We have to wait until Goku gets better or we're all doomed!" Trunks forced out obviously still in quite a bit of pain, "We **must** wait!"

_While it'll definitely be better to have another Super Saiyan on our side, one that __**won't**__ put his own desires ahead of the safety of the plant, it won't make as much difference as Trunks seems to think it will._ He thought as he cast a glance both with his eyes as well as his ki sensing ability in the direction Vegeta had flown, _If we're going to defeat those androids, we need a way to get a helluva lot stronger or make them fuckin' weaker!_

As he thought, he could see that the others were pretty much leaning in the direction of going after Vegeta but, for him, he thought that it might just be better for everyone if they just let the androids kill him. The fact that The Vegetable was a fellow Saiyan did little to motivate him into going to the Prick's rescue. The fact that the bastard was one of the stronger members of the Z-Team didn't do much either, since one more or less Super Saiyan wouldn't make much difference in this fight. The fact that Vegeta was his cousin through the sister to the King was barely a footnote to him, since they hadn't exactly had a chance to **bond** yet as relatives. In the end, though, the only thing that got him moving to catch up with the others was his desire to keep them from getting themselves killed trying to prevent Vegeta from kicking the bucket. While they were all weaker than a Super Saiyan, most of them at least knew how to prioritize things and put others before themselves.

_The things I gotta do to keep everything from going straight down the crapper!_ He thought as he took up a strong position in the aerial formation of the Z fighters.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**Thirty-Five Minutes Later, A Cliffside Road, Picollo's Perspective**_

"Are you okay in there, Vegeta?" Trunks asked in the direction of the Vegetable sized hole in the side of the hill next to the road.

"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?!" Vegeta replied, no doubt trying to sound tougher than he really was.

This turned out to be true since, only a few seconds later, his Namekian eyes gazed upon a bruised up Vegeta, looking like he'd just endured his first taste of what the androids could do. Considering what he could feel of Vegeta and his own appraisal abilities as a warrior, he could tell that while the arrogant Saiyan might have taken some solid hits his pride was still in one piece. Not necessarily a good thing since it'd only mean more of a beating when the moron resumed his fight with the female android. By his estimation, the fight should have only gone on for ten minutes so far and if it had taken only ten minutes to beat Vegeta up this much then the android was more powerful than she seemed.

"You're alright!" Trunks exclaimed with relief at the sight of his father being anything other than deceased.

"Heheheheh! Of course! That was just a lucky punch." Vegeta boasted, trying to pass off the blow that sent him into the stone wall as nothing, "What are you doing here? I told you I don't need your help and I don't want it either!"

Vegeta's self-confidence was both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness because, while believing in yourself as a fighter was important, overconfidence would always lead to defeat. Goku had this issue as well but to a lesser degree since the clown knew not to put his own issues before the safety of the planet. As for Xander, while he hadn't seen much of the kid's fighting style yet, the teenager from another dimension appeared to be somewhere between his two relatives in the confidence department. The cousin of Vegeta was confident enough in his abilities to play with his opponent when the chance arose but was smart enough not to become too careless when it counted. There were still plenty of signs of inexperience about the young man but, hopefully, it wouldn't take getting his ass kicked to get him to put a muzzle on his Saiyan pride.

"Uh oh! There's another android approaching at twelve o'clock!" Tien warned causing most of them to spare a half glance down the road behind them.

Sure enough the dark haired android was approaching them at a casual pace while the larger one hadn't taken a single step one way or another. This definitely could turn out to be a problem if the two androids decided to double team Vegeta or, worse, things degenerated into a free for all. While not considering himself to be a slouch, he knew that compared to Vegeta he was the weaker of the two. If it came to a fight, he wasn't sure how well he'd fair against an android at his current level. He'd have to try and convince the others to follow some kind of strategy or battle plan where they'd all combine their strength against one of the androids. If one of them couldn't defeat an android one-on-one, then they'd have to gang up on one and use cunning to win the fight.

"It's time to get out of here! We should leave now and come back when Goku is better." Trunks said with authority since being polite to his father wasn't working, "Then we'll come back and fight them."

"What **is WRONG** with **you!?**" Vegeta exclaimed in disbelief at the proposed course of action, "Run away?! I'm staying right here!"

"You should listen to your friend." Android 18 said in a chilly tone, "He's the one who'll have to clean you off the highway."

"Are you kidding me? You want me to leave now just when we're getting to know each other?" Vegeta asked without an ounce of real sarcasm, "You should be so lucky! I fight alone! I don't need the help of anyone and that includes these Earthlings, the Namek, my **cousin** and most of all **Kakarot!** I am the most powerful Saiyan who has ever lived. I fear no one! Especially not this android!"

Vegeta's little bit of speechifying was met with emotionless clapping as the dark haired male android joined the gathering of fighters on the highway. It didn't sound like the machine intended to attack right away but nevertheless he kept his guard up just in case.

"A beautiful speech! I can see it now." Android 17 said with a mocking tone of voice, "You truly are a prince with the royal blood of a Saiyan."

"Stay out of this one android! I'll deal with you soon enough." Vegeta ordered after spitting some blood out of his mouth, "After I deal with her."

"Well I'd hate to deny you the opportunity to test your strength against 18, so I'll make a deal with you." Android 17 said in a conversational tone of voice, "I'm willing to stand aside and let you fight as long as you fight alone. But if any one of these friends of yours tries to assist you in any way, well, I'll be forced to step in."

"You don't have to worry about this group. They're a bunch of cowards!" Vegeta said with complete certainty, "They won't risk their lives for me."

"Then you agree?" Android 17 asked just to formalize the agreement.

"Yes I agree." Vegeta replied without hesitation of any kind.

"Then let's continue?" Android 18 asked with cold politeness.

"Bring it on!" Vegeta replied sounding all too eager to get the fight going again.

"As you wish!" the female android said before shooting forward in a blur.

A right cross sent Vegeta skyward with the female android in pursuit but The Vegetable was able to turn this around by pushing off the rock face and slamming his head into her gut. This seemed to daze her a bit and thus set her up for a double overhead axe handle blow to the back that sent her plummeting into the rock face across from the cliff side road. However the prince of all Saiyans didn't stop there because, the moment Android 18's impact with the rock was confirmed, Xander's cousin let loose a powerful ki blast towards the murderous machine's probable location. The detonation of the energy wasn't powerful enough for the dust and debris to reach them where they were but it was still strong enough to do considerable damage if it hit the android. As the dust cleared, though, all could see the blonde standing strong amidst the rubble with only some damage to her clothes and hair to show that she'd been affected at all by the attack.

_Not a good sign._ He thought since he had a feeling that even Freeza would have been hurt by that blast.

"What's the matter? You look a bit ruffled." Vegeta asked with much amusement in his voice.

"Yes, well, looks aren't everything. You fight quite well for such a little man." Android 18 replied as though only slightly bothered by his words, "It's impressive even if you are a Saiyan."

"I know! There are very few willing to train as intensely as I did to achieve this kind of power." Vegeta said preening a bit at the perceived compliment.

"How sad. To work so hard for so…little." Android 18 said making it clear that his accomplishment wasn't as impressive as Vegeta thought it was.

"Sad for **YOU!**" Vegeta roared before going on the offensive with a storm of punches and kicks.

It was difficult to see anything in the serious dust cloud that the blows were kicking up but, fortunately for him, his eyes were good enough to pick the two fighters out. At first glance it looked like Vegeta had the woman on the defensive but a closer looked revealed that Vegeta was pushing himself to his limits and beyond. He was going all out and, while short-term benefits of doing so were good, it was dangerous to keep fighting at this level for a prolonged period of time.

_There's no way Vegeta can keep fighting at this intensity!_ He thought before voicing his concerns, "He's done for! He can't win!"

The others looked to him, except for Xander, wondering what he was talking about so he decided to dumb things down for them a bit.

"Look! She's making him burn up all his energy and then she's going to attack." Piccolo explained with growing concern at the fight going on before him, "Every move takes its toll. Vegeta is getting weaker while the android stays strong."

This was proven true before their very eyes as the rate at which The Vegetable had been pushing Android 18 back was decreasing rapidly. She even began to get some of her own shots in, forcing Vegeta to either block or evade her attacks in order to protect himself.

"It's an old boxing move. When fighting against an opponent who's all power and aggression, the smartest strategy you can use is to just close up and wait them out." Xander said, sounding like his analysis of the fight had been going in the same direction, "Eventually they'll use up all their strength leaving them with nothing and that's when the fight is decided with a single blow. Vegeta's done for."

_Not sounding too concerned about his cousin, is he?_ He thought as he noticed a lack of concern about Vegeta in Xander's voice.

He knew that their connection had just been revealed recently but he'd thought that after a year of training under Vegeta, Xander might have at least some feelings of respect or something for his teacher. Apparently, though, Vegeta's own arrogance and attitude had kept any such feelings from developing leaving only a detached Saiyan warrior behind.

_It's a sad thing when all a sensei does is pass on techniques and nothing else to his student._ He thought as the fight began to get interesting down below.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**Five Seconds Later, Same Place, Xander's Point of View**_

With arms crossed over his chest, he watched as his 'cousin' started getting his ass kicked by the beautiful female android down below.

It was all happening just like he thought it would: Vegeta had bitten off more than he could chew and was now suffering the consequences of his unparalleled arrogance. He had suspected from the moment the Prick of all Saiyans had managed to land a solid blow that Android 18 was letting him score a hit. Everything he'd seen up until that point had him thoroughly convinced that no one, not even a Super Saiyan, could match up against these androids one-on-one. The fool however had no doubt chosen to believe that his blows were landing because his opponent was weakening or due to his increased determination to win. Even during the furious exchange of blows between the two moments ago, he had known what was going on as the female android chose to either redirect, block or outright evaded the attacks headed her way. She was pulling the oldest trick in the book and the stunted fool was falling for it like a world class sucker. Where was the so-called elite Saiyan warrior now? Where was this superior warrior of royal blood?

_You're getting a harsh dose of reality Vegeta and I hope you choke on it!_ He thought as he watched as his 'cousin' was kicked out of the air and into a pile of boulders.

The more he thought about it, the more Xander was certain that letting Vegeta get killed by these androids would be the smart move to make. He was a liability, his ego had way too much sway over his actions, and in a fight with the kind of stakes they were facing, liabilities had to be kept to a minimum. As he heard the rising fear-driven breathing of Trunks, though, an annoying thought came to mind that threatened to topple his perfectly strategic plan. If he let Vegeta die then he'd have to suffer the wrath of not only Bulma but also Trunks, both versions of them, and knowing his luck the resentment of the rest of the Z-Team as well. THAT would only lead to more problems and lessen their chances of beating the androids when the time came. If they were going to have any chance at it, they would have to trust one another and be able to work as a cohesive unit since he didn't think any of them could take the mechanical murderers one-on-one no matter how much training they endured. Still, as he saw his cousin launch an assault on the blonde bionic beauty, he couldn't help but hold together his anger towards Vegeta as well as his opinion that they would be better off without him. The man was insufferably arrogant at times, a loner and thought that everyone should bow down before him because he was a Prince of an extinct people. He made the old Queen C look like the kindest person in the world even if you caught her at **that** time of the month after a particularly bad day at school. While Xander had come to realise that there were layers to Cordy, he seriously doubted that there were any hidden depths to Vegeta. The man pretty much wore everything he was thinking or feeling right on the surface for everyone to see.

"AAAHHHHH!!" Vegeta cried out in serious pain as Android 18 delivered a kick that quite obviously broke the prick's left arm in multiple places.

"NOOOOO!!!!" Trunks exclaimed in response as he saw the first debilitating wound in what was no doubt going to be the first nail in Vegeta's coffin.

Sadly it looked like this was going to be the straw that broke Trunks' restraint as the boy transformed to Super Saiyan and went flying right at the Android stalking his father, the orderly one on one was about to degenerate into a free for all. Sitting back to see what effect a sneak attack like that might have, Xander was not too surprised to see that when Trunks took a swing at the female android with his sword she was able to block it with her forearm without getting damaged in the least. Too bad the same couldn't be said for the sword since the entire area around where it had come into contact with firm forearm it shattered, leaving a half circle niche in the blade. Either whoever made the teenager's sword had ripped him off or the android was made of much tougher materials than the sword. Sadly all of them only had a moment to consider the ramifications of this since the other android did exactly what he said he would if anyone interfered with Vegeta's fight with Android 18. That pretty much removed whatever order there might have been as both Piccolo and Tien quickly followed Bandana boy's lead. He, on the other hand, would not make a move because he had no intention of getting his ass kicked for no good reason. Even though he had now decided to save both Trunks **AND** Vegeta from dying, Xander knew that throwing down with these two android abominations was not going to work. None of them had the speed or the power to even force these two to get serious never mind actually consider withdrawing.

_No. If I'm going to end this with everyone coming out of it in one piece, I'm going to have to try and outsmart these androids._ He thought before mentally rolling his eyes at **that** idea, _What a revoltin' development dis is!_

Examples of why a physical confrontation with the androids was not going to work quickly manifested as the teenage boy model knocked the wind out of Piccolo's sails with a single kick. Tien didn't fair much better as the android moved around to the rear of the three-eyed warrior with unmitigated ease and clamped onto him with a choke hold. Then something happened that he didn't expect with Vegeta actually taking to the air to try and save Tien. It was something Xander had never even though **could** happen, much less might happen in this situation but it didn't get the stunted Saiyan very far. Before the prince got out of her reach, Android 18 grabbed him by his leg and, in response to an approaching Trunks, swung the father into the son. This succeeded in knocking Trunks out cold, resulting in the kid going back to normal, and Vegeta sprawled out on the ground very much unconscious. He was almost ready with his ploy, the bit of persuasion that might get the robots to leave the Z-Warriors alive and intact, when Piccolo regained his senses and took in the situation. Much like Vegeta had tried to do, the Namek took to the air to try and save Tien from being choked to death by the male android but, despite once being Goku's equal, the green skinned warrior was way below where he needed to be. He missed on the first pass and when he tried to turn about for a second the teen guy-bot was ready with a palm strike that almost went out the Namek's back. Then like so much discarded trash the android allowed one of the most respected fighters on the planet fall to the ground a mess of agony as well as broken bones probably.

_Better get their attention before they decide that this bunch isn't worth keeping around for entertainment._ He thought before he started moving to the edge of the cliff that the road was on.

However that was the moment that Vegeta decided to stop playing possum and try to get a comeback started. A wasted effort if there ever was one. Not only was he one arm down but the androids had already proven that even if the pint sized Saiyan had been at full strength with zero injuries he wouldn't win. Deciding it'd be best to let the machine kick his cousin around a little more, Xander watched as blow after devastating blow was delivered to the royal warrior. As he watched the fight come to an end though he decided now was the time to approach the deadly duo and make his proposal known. Lifting into the air he moved towards where Android 17 was going to join his 'sister' but made sure to do so at a rate of speed that wouldn't be seen as hostile. If it looked like he was going to be going on the attack then the odds said he'd be unconscious or in great pain before he got even a word out. As it was he was only a little ways off from them when he picked up their conversation.

"How curious. Vegeta's hair has changed color again." Android 17 stated as he touched down on an elevated outcropping of rock.

"Hmmm. Yes and that strange glow is gone, too." Android 18 said before pointing to an unconscious Trunks, "It's the same with this young boy. I don't have any files on him."

"Neither do I." Android 17 stated with hands on hips.

"I wonder who he is." Android 18 said with mild interest.

"It doesn't really matter, does it? He's no threat to us." Android 17 said before a malevolent tone entered his voice, "Still, these fools might try to interfere with our fun. Let's kill them now and be done with them."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Xander said, making both his presence and his opinion known before either mechanical monstrosity could do anything.

"Oh? And why would that be?" Android 17 asked before turning around and looking up at one of the two unharmed warriors still on the side of good.

"From what I can tell, you think of all this as a game. If that's the case then ask yourself: wouldn't it be more fun to have at least a handful of opponents that could at least provide some diversion?" He asked, making sure to phrase his words just right, "If you kill this bunch along with me and the one on the road up there, then the only opponents left will be ordinary humans. Gotta tell you that they aren't even worth noticing in terms of a challenge. They could hit you with every weapon they have and not even scratch you."

"Hmmm. He has a point, 17." Android 18 said with some consideration in her eyes, "We're the most powerful weapons this world has ever known. Once Goku is out of the way what'll there be left for us to do if these idiots are dead?"

"Indeed. After all, half the fun of videogames are the bosses that you face at the end of each level." Xander said, moving his train of thought along, "While I'll admit that we're no match for you now, your files should tell you that we're capable of getting quite a bit stronger with some time to train. Saiyans like myself more so than the rest. Give us enough time and we'll be able to give you quite the enjoyable fight. Interested?"

There! He'd played his hand and now all he could do was wait to see if these two fell for it or turned him into their new punching bag. It was a gambit but, then again, pretty much all strategies had an element of chance to them. He just hoped that this once the old Harris luck took pity on him and didn't work its evil magic on these two robots because if it did then, he was in for some major pain.

"Very well. You and your friends can live but only if the next time we meet you can provide us with some actual opposition." Android 17 said with a nod of agreement, "If, however, our next battle ends like this one did, we won't show any of you any mercy. Understood?"

"Agreed." He said mentally sighing in relief although he did his best to keep it from showing on his face.

With that Android 17 took to the air once more and headed in the direction of the green and black clad brute they'd woken up earlier named Android 16. He was about to yell for Krillin to come down with the Senzu beans when he saw out of the corner of his eye that the female android was headed in his direction. Immediately all thoughts of Krillin and the beans went out the window since he knew he'd need all his wits focused on dealing with the blonde bombshell approaching him at this very moment.

Looking at her, she didn't seem to be getting ready to attack him, more like she was giving him a once over, but that made even less sense then the not attacking him did. It wasn't until she was hovering a little above him within arms reach that she decided to make her intentions known.

"Hmmm. It's kinda nice to see that there's at least one of you that has both brains and some brawn in this nice package." Android 18 said with an odd smile on her face that he defined as 'not good'.

With great speed and no warning, she reached down to him and pulled him towards her before he could so much as move a limb. However, if he thought that she was going to leave him with a parting shot to the family jewels, he couldn't have been more wrong. Instead of something painful she gave him one scorcher of a kiss right on the lips that instantly put the blue screen of death in command of his head. There wasn't any tongue or anything but one thing he could say for certain was that **BOY** could that femme 'bot lay one on a guy. It only lasted for three or four seconds but when it was done his mind was still in a shocked and incoherent daze.

"See you around." She said before she let him go and flew up to where both Android 17 and 16 were waiting for her.

As he floated down to the ground where the rest of the Z-Warrior lay in various states of pain, there was only one word that could describe what had just happened.

"Damn."

Oz couldn't have put it any better.


	9. It's time for plan B

Cliff Side Road, One Minute Later, Krillin's Perspective

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. They belong only to their creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this or gain anything aside from the reviews and emails of those who like to read my work.

&

_**Cliff Side Road, One Minute Later, Krillin's Perspective**_

_Why the hell am I always the one doing all the work?!_ Krillin thought as he rolled Tien over so he could give his friend a Senzu bean.

It had only been a minute since Xander had ordered him down from the street to start handing out the beans. Considering the guy had only been around for a little over three years with them, he had some nerve ordering him around given that he'd been around almost from the beginning. Still, the guy was a Super Saiyan and had been taught by both Goku and Vegeta, so it probably wouldn't have been a very smart move telling him to go screw himself. So, with some annoyance, he'd floated down to the rock-covered battleground and started handing out senzu beans, starting with Piccolo. One by one he tried to coax some level of consciousness into them so they could safely chew then swallow the bean. Tien was the last one and, once he was up and about, they'd be able to make sense of what had just happened and plan their next move. Personally he was about ready to start picking out where he'd like to be buried as well as what type of stone he'd like his gravestone to be made out of. After seeing how easily Vegeta, Trunks, Piccolo and Tien were defeated, he knew he would have been smacked aside like he was nothing if he'd charged into fight. However, he had been somewhat surprised at the time when Xander hadn't flown in with the others when they went to go to Trunks' aide. While he could understand why he stayed behind, fear and a healthy sense of self-preservation, he was stumped as to why a Super Saiyan would refrain from entering into battle. From what he knew, just about everyone with an ounce of Saiyan blood in them loved to fight and didn't hesitate when an chance popped up to show everyone what they could do. True, Goku, Trunks and Gohan showed some restraint in this area but he'd seen enough fights to know that when they butt heads with an enemy they were having the time of their lives. So why had Xander not tried fighting the androids himself?

_Oooohhh! Whatever! _He thought as his brain started to develop a headache trying to figure out the guy from another dimension, _Gotta get Tien back on his feet._

"Hey! Tien! Can you hear me?" He asked his friend in the hopes of getting more than a moan or a groan in reply.

Sadly, the moan and groan combo was all he got making it clear that the three eyed warrior was in seriously bad shape. Still, he was determined to try and get at least a somewhat verbal response from the former Budokai fighter so as to be sure that chewing and swallowing would be possible.

"Are you alright?" He asked but only got more of the same.

Putting a senzu bean into the man's mouth, he was somewhat grateful that while his friend wasn't coherent enough to speak, he did have enough consciousness to know when something was in his mouth and when to chew that something. With the crunchy sound of hard candy breaking up, he knew all would be well soon and the last of the injured Z-Warriors would be back on his feet. Moving away to give the tri-eyed warrior some space, he looked over to where the others were almost done taking stock of the damage their bodies still had despite the healing properties of the senzu bean. Trunks was back on his feet and inspecting his damaged sword while Piccolo was checking his control over his body as well as testing certain muscles to make sure they were working. As for Vegeta though… well, he'd never really considered the cocky bastard a member of their team and the arrogant Saiyan had made it clear he didn't **need** a team.

_Still, Vegeta looks like he's in pretty rough shape._ He thought as he looked over the second strongest fighter they had on their side.

As much as he hated to admit it, they'd probably need Vegeta in tip top shape if they wanted to take down the androids. The man might be an arrogant bastard but he was a good fighter and one of the four Saiyans that could transform into a Super Saiyan, so he was pretty much one of their go to guys. While he might have felt better if Vegeta healed the normal way, hopefully learning some humility along the way, he knew the world probably didn't have that kind of time.

"I guess I need to give Vegeta a couple of beans." He said as he briskly walked over to where Vegeta lay.

Deciding that it'd probably be safer for everyone concerned (though mostly for him) to just dump all the beans in at once, he pried open the fallen Prince's mouth and emptied his hand into it. Putting some immediate distance between himself and the soon to be recovered Saiyan warrior, he looked over at the only person who hadn't needed a bean aside from himself. Xander was still standing in the same spot he'd been in since initially yelling at him to get moving with the beans. While he couldn't say for certain the reason for the silence or the contemplative look on the young Saiyan's face, he had a hunch it had something to do with the girl Android's kiss. It had been a shock to say the least when she grabbed his head and kissed him on the lips because, the second he'd seen her hands move, he thought for certain she was going to snap Xander's neck. Instead, she kissed him like she was going to show him a good time and then flew off with the other androids like nothing had happened. The brother of Goku was probably trying to make sense of that move, trying to figure out whether it was a battle tactic or just harmless flirting, that's all.

"Ah man!" Tien groaned working his way back to his feet, "Even with a senzu bean I feel like my head is going to hurt for weeks!"

"Yeah, well, we don't have weeks. At best we probably have one or two before we'll have to confront the androids again in order to keep this planet from being a total loss." Xander stated, coming out of his thoughtful pose and approaching the rest of the recovered fighters.

"You're probably right." Piccolo said, sounding like he wanted to get back to work, "So how about you tell us where they are right now and what happened after they wiped the floor with us."

"Fine. Here's what happened." Xander said before beginning a rather blunt retelling of what happened from the moment the others dove into battle to the present.

With the words that followed, Krillin had to wonder how this guy had managed to live at Capsule Corp HQ for so long and survive telling it like it was to Bulma every day.

&

_**Twenty Minutes Later, Same Place, Xander's P.O.V**_

To say that the other Z-warriors had not reacted well to his debriefing would be putting it mildly, but he just didn't see the point in pulling any punches. Either he'd edit out the wrong bit of info or they'd find out about it later and get on his case about not telling them sooner. Better to be up front from the beginning then deal with the consequences of omission later on.

"I don't get it. They had us at their mercy." Tien stated, unable to comprehend why the androids hadn't taken the most efficient way of dealing with defeated enemies, "Why didn't they just finish us off?"

"They probably would have if I hadn't managed to use their little quest for fun against them," he explained with a bit of smugness at his tactical coup. "I convinced them that it'd be more fun for them in the long run if they let all of us live rather than kill us off right away. After all, if they wind up destroying us then all they'll have to face on this planet are the weaklings in royal military and a couple of has-beens from that old Budokai martial arts tournament.

"I told them if they wanted a real fight that they should let us live and that when they saw us next we'd be able to give them a good fight." He said as he reigned in his confidence a bit, "It won't last long, though, 'cause something tells me that patience isn't something those androids are all that good at."

"Definitely. Taking them on was a serious mistake on our parts and we can't afford to make any more dealing with them." Piccolo said in angry agreement with his opinion of the minds of the androids, "The androids might not fall for the same promise a second time or be as merciful with their attacks."

That sentence was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back for the Prick of all Saiyans because, seconds later, Vegeta powered up his ki field and shot off into the sky. Hearing about how the androids had left due to some careful trickery rather than his 'awesome power' probably acted like rubbing salt in the proverbial wounds. For the arrogant asshole it would have been easier to take his continued existence if it had been because the androids hadn't been in any shape to deliver the deathblow. Instead they left because they were unimpressed with their opponents and had been tricked by him into letting everyone live with a promise of a much better fight down the road. Not exactly the sort of story a Saiyan warrior would be proud to tell to his buddies over a couple of beers and a bowl of pretzels.

"Vegeta!!" Krillin yelled out, angry, no doubt, at the stunted Saiyan's departure both because of the dirt it kicked up as well as leaving such an important meeting so abruptly.

Trunks looked like he was about to take off as well, probably believing that he could talk things out with his father and make the Prick feel better, but fortunately Piccolo saw the truth of things.

"Trunks! Let him go. Stop!" Piccolo ordered as the sword wielding teen prepared to propel himself into the sky, "Leave him alone. Ever since Vegeta became a Super Saiyan, his ego has been out of control. Honestly, I think what that android hurt the most today was his pride. He is very ashamed of his defeat."

"Hmph! Hopefully this'll take the runt down a peg or two." Xander said, showing his annoyance and contempt for his cousin, "In fact, I hope all of you use this to change your own way of thinking. You charged headlong into a fight that you knew was out of your league and almost got yourselves killed."

He knew this would jab something sharp in a sore spot for them but it needed to be said because like Piccolo said they couldn't afford to make any more mistakes from here on out. From that point on they had to use their heads just as much as their bodies and pulling heroic bullshit would be just plain stupid.

"Well at least we actually did something!" Tien yelled, clearly not liking the fact that he was being talked to like he was some green fighter, "All you did was stand there! Didn't you care that your cousin and nephew were getting the crap beat out of them!?"

"OF COURSE I DID!!" He yelled back, equally pissed at the idea that seeing Trunks get knocked around meant nothing to him, "That doesn't change the fact that diving in there head first was a stupid ass move! It I wanted to get my ass kicked for no reason, I would have gone and annoyed Goku's wife!"

"Hmmmm. I think Xander's right. He made the right call not diving in like we did." Piccolo said with some difficulty, considering what he was saying about himself, "Trunks is a Super Saiyan and it only took one punch from those androids to take him out of the fight. Even if both Krillin and Xander had joined the fight, we still would've lost that fight."

"Oh **man!!** I wish Goku were here!" Krillin exclaimed as the growing hopelessness of the situation got to him.

"Trunks, you were able to take out Freiza singlehandedly, you're one of the strongest people I've ever met, but those androids tossed you aside as though you were nothing." Tien said accepting, however difficultly, that both Xander and Piccolo had a point, "Goku is strong but in all honesty, I don't see how he can be that much strong than Trunks, Vegeta and Xander. And if that's the case then we're done for!"

"Way to calm the guy down, three-eyes!" Xander growled not liking the direction the collective mood of the group was going, "If all you're going to do is rant 'we are so doomed' then do it someplace else. The rest of us still think this fight is a toss up."

That shut the man with the no doubt custom made sunglasses and hopefully would put a cork in any other doom preachers that might be in the group. If there was one thing that he knew for a fact, it was that a person's mindset played a big part in the outcome of a fight. If a warrior went into battle thinking he was going to lose then he might as well throw himself on the sword of his enemy immediately. The situation with the androids was definitely not looking good, but he still believed with all his heart that all they needed was more training time. Three years of training had made all of them strong enough to beat the crap out of Gero and his energy draining android buddy so, hopefully, another three years of training would close the gap with these new androids too. They just needed more training time!!

"It's strange. These androids are much stronger than the ones I fought in my time." Trunks said with some puzzlement now that he had time to think things through.

"Wait Trunks! What do you mean?" Piccolo asked with a speck of dread in his Namekian voice.

_Definitely something I want the answer to as well. _He thought since he already thought that these killing machines were plenty strong enough already.

"The androids I fought were stronger than me but not this much." Trunks replied with a little unease in his voice, "The kind of strength these new ones have is off the charts."

_I know I've probably thought and said this before but: __**NOT GOOD!**_ He thought as he considered the implications of what the young man from the future had just said.

When he'd first heard of the story about the androids and how they would lay waste to the world, he'd always assumed that they would've been at most fifty percent stronger than the Z-warriors would have been had they continued training without the warning from the future. Thus, by being warned, they had tripled the amount of training they usually went through in order to make sure that when the big day came they'd be ready. Even when he'd seen Vegeta getting his ass handed to him, Xander just assumed it would take a couple of months of intense training to get everyone up to the level of these new androids. However, if the androids were truly head and shoulders above the ones that Trunks faced in his time, then all their training up until now may very well have been useless. That didn't mean that further training couldn't remedy the problem but it definitely meant that they'd need more than they had in order to close the power gap. In short, their situation was not a good one and only had a slim chance of getting better.

"If that's true then we really are out of luck." Tien said with despair as their chances for survival and victory dropped even further, "What should we do?"

"You four go to Goku's and move him someplace safe." Piccolo replied, not missing a beat or showing any hesitation, "He'll be able to join you once he's well. It's obvious we're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to defeat these androids."

"Good idea! But Piccolo what are you going to be doing?" Krillin asked with some curiosity.

"I…don't know." Piccolo replied, sounding unsure of the possible course of action that was probably bouncing around his head.

"C'mon! I know you've come up with a plan!" Krillin said, showing that he too sensed something going on inside the Namek's green head, "So why don't you just tell us what your scheme is? C'mon! We're buddies now aren't we?"

"Listen to me! Stop asking questions! It's none of your concern!" Piccolo yelled as though Krillin had just extinguished the last shred of patience he had.

_Something's up._ He thought as he prepared himself for what might happen next, _Piccolo's the level headed one of this group, aside from myself. If he's this pissed about something then it really must be bothering him._

"This is something **I** have to do **ALONE!**" Piccolo roared and, with a wind up as well as a pitch, the Namek fired off an energy ball.

However he could tell in the seconds that followed the initial impact that the purpose of the move wasn't to hurt or even rough up anyone. It was meant as a hint of what the rest of them could expect if they tried to press him for any answers afterwards. This was proven accurate when, as the golden lightshow began to die down, the green man powered up his energy field and gained some altitude before turning to face them.

"Piccolo! What are you doing?!" Krillin asked in surprise at this unexpected bit of behaviour.

"I'm leaving! Anyone who tries to follow me will be sorry they did!!" Piccolo replied with the utmost seriousness that no one could miss, "Just find Goku and forget about me!"

With those words the Namek shot off into the sky at a speed that was probably just shy of his limit. While he didn't like the idea of one of their smarter and stronger fighters flying off solo like this, Xander respected the green skinned man enough to let him go. Whatever that guy had to do must have something to do with the scheme he had cooked up to deal with the androids, So long as he was sure that that was the reason behind the shoulder pad wearing warrior's actions, he let it slide.

"What's with him?" Tien asked, sounding slightly unsure of his departing comrade, "Did I miss something here? I haven't seen Piccolo act like that since back in the old days when he was trying to destroy Goku and take over the world. It doesn't make sense! Last I heard, Piccolo was fighting on our side!"

_I have a whole new respect for the Namek if this is the sort of brain trust he has to put up with every planetary crisis!_ He thought as he fought the urge to glare at the three eyed idiot.

"Don't worry, Tien. Piccolo just has a lot on his mind." Krillin said with a confident smile on his puny face, "He's still one of the good guys. This is one fight we cannot afford to lose! And if we really want to defeat these androids it's going to take everything that we've got. Piccolo just doing what he thinks he has to do to win. So don't worry 'cause he'll be okay."

_Well, well, it looks like the midget might actually have a halfway decent brain after all._ He thought since for the first time since the mess with the androids began the vertically challenged fighter showed some actual insight.

"Krillin? 'He'll be okay'? What are you talking about?" Tien asked, clearly in the dark and also implying that when God gave the idiot an extra eye, he did so to make up for a substandard brain.

"You saw Piccolo fly off in that direction, right?" Krillin asked in response, pointing in the direction where the Namek had been going prior to vanishing from sight, "Try and guess where you think he's going."

"Is this a trick question?" Tien asked, half serious and half impatient.

When nothing came from the bald midget, Three Eyes actually gave it some thought.

No surprise when he still came up clueless.

"To Kami's place!" Krillin finally said, revealing the key piece of the puzzle to everyone.

"To Kami's place?" Tien asked, clearly no understanding the significance of the info.

He, on the other hand, had an inkling of what might be soon to happen from his time with Goku during the first year of training. According to Goku, Piccolo and Kami had once been the same being. Kami had approached the former Guardian of the Earth for his position but had been refused due to an ethereal darkness within the Namek. Thus the challenge had been thrown down: if Kami really did want to claim the throne of the Guardian of the Earth, he'd have to purge himself of this darkness. Somehow he thought that the former Guardian had meant this in a metaphorical sense rather than literal but the old Namek had chosen to do it the hard way. After much training and thought, Kami successfully managed to cast out the darkness from within his body. Sadly, this darkness didn't disappear as one might have hoped but, rather, became a separate being similar in appearance to the newly appointed Guardian of the Earth except this version was pure evil. It called itself the evil King Piccolo and went on to try and conquer the world with its impressive power. In the end, though, a pint-sized Goku managed to bring everything to an end for the malicious monster for, in the seconds preceding its explosive death, it transferred the bulk of its essence to an egg and cast it away from the battlefield. This egg later hatched and became the Piccolo of today. Oh, it took a while before the cape-wearing warrior gave up his pre-programmed revenge on Goku but, thanks to Gohan, it did happen. If the brains of the Z-warriors was heading for Kami's place during a crisis like this, then it was safe to assume he was going there either for wisdom or power.

"I remember Master Roshi telling me something long ago." Krillin said after wrapping up his own brief summary of the connection between Kami and Piccolo, "He said that if Kami and Piccolo hadn't split into two, they'd be the strongest being in the entire universe."

_So it is power after all and maybe a little wisdom thrown in, assuming that something of the Guardian of the Earth sticks around after the fusion._ He thought as he saw why the co-founder of the Z-warriors was so optimistic, _Still, it's a coin toss as to whether or not a fused Piccolo and Kami will actually make that much of a difference against the androids. Everyone used to think that a Super Saiyan like Goku was the strongest being in the universe until they were told otherwise. I guess I'll just have to wait and see like everyone else._

"Look! You know what a Super Saiyan is, right?" Krillin asked, getting pumped up by his own predication quite a bit, "Piccolo and Kami will become a Super Namek!"

"You say a Super Namek, huh?" Tien asked rhetorically, finally showing that he'd caught up with the rest of the class, "We could sure use that!"

However that was when Three Eyes showed that he might actually have an average sized piece of grey matter in his head after all.

"Wait a minute! If they unite Kami will disappear and so will the dragonballs." Tien pointed out, sounding unwilling to let the miracle balls vanish so easily.

"Yeah, maybe so, but it's no better if Piccolo get's iced by the androids since that'll poof the dragonballs too." He said, getting a little bored with this lack of movement and overabundance of talking, "This isn't a fight we can hold anything back on. It's all or nothing!"

"My father… I mean Vegeta… we can't forget about him." Trunks said, obviously still bothered by his dad's abrupt departure earlier.

While it was true that his first urge was to yell that it'd be a gift from the heavens themselves if it was possible to forget about that arrogant prick, Xander knew that wouldn't improve matters any. Whether he liked it or not, Vegeta was Trunks' father and, seeing as how the one from the future hadn't had a chance to get to know his dad, he could hardly hold it against the swordsman for wanting to hold onto the asshole so tightly. So, despite the fact that it'd leave a bad taste in his mouth, he decided he should say something to reassure the kid somehow.

"Don't worry about your father, Trunks. His pride's just smarting 'cause all his training in space turned out to be a waste of time." He said trying to keep his voice from conveying his true feelings concerning the Prince of all Saiyans, "I gotta admit I'm not all that happy about the situation myself. Still, I'm sure once he blows off some steam and gets over his defeat, he'll be back. If there's one thing that guy obsesses over more than showing off his strength, it's delivering payback to anyone who pisses him off and the androids definitely got his blood boiling. He'll be back."

"Yeah. You're right!" Trunks said looking like a serious burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Good. Now that that's out of the way, let's get going to Goku's place." He said as he turned in the direction of the Son home, "We have to move him someplace else before the androids get there."

With that he powered up his ki field and launched himself into the air before directing himself towards the group's ultimate destination. Once he was high enough up, he kicked his speed up to just below Super Saiyan level because time was literally running out.

For both the Z-warriors and for planet Earth.

&

_**Mid-Air, En Route to the Son Home, Forty Minutes Later, Trunks' P.O.V**_

"Trunks! Tell me something." Krillin yelled over the noise of their ki fields and the air passing by them as they flew, "That medicine that you gave to Goku, how long will it take before it makes him well?"

"In Goku's case, I'd say it'll take about ten days or so." Trunks replied even though he was withholding one crucial fact.

Aside from the fact that he knew the medicine would work, he knew next to nothing about it and was just making a random guess as far as how long it would take to heal Goku. The heart virus had been pretty much wiped out by the time he'd been old enough to understand the basics and, while his mother had attempted to give him a history lesson on it…well…he'd been distracted by the idea of meeting the legendary Goku. Still, from the little he did manage to retain, he was sure his prediction of how long it'd take for Goku to fully recover couldn't be **too** far off the mark.

Could it?

"Ten days, huh? We should be able to hide him somewhere safe for ten days." Krillin said, sounding confident of their chances.

"Yeah. No problem!" Tien said, putting in his two cents on the issue.

"That's if we have sense enough to hide him someplace completely unconnected to him. Chances are they already have every place from Roshi's place to Capsule Corps marked out on some map in their databases." Uncle Xander said, making a very good point that might otherwise have been overlooked.

"So where do we take him?" Tien said with a little lingering hostility towards the Saiyan that had chosen to stand by and watch the rest of them get pummelled.

"It'd have to be someplace out of the way, someplace where there aren't a lot of people around if any at all, but also someplace the androids wouldn't expect in a million years." Xander replied with a focused look on his face.

"Kami's place?" Krillin suggested as the first possibility.

"I thought I said it couldn't be any place connected to Goku!" His uncle growled at the shortest member of their four man team, "Even if they don't precisely know where it is, it won't take them long to find it."

"Then why don't you think up a place, smart ass!" Tien said angrily coming to the defence of his friend.

With that his uncle fell silent and Trunks wondered if his dad's cousin truly did have a place in mind or if he was just as clueless as the rest of them. Personally he bet on the former because, while this Xander might not be the same as the one in his time, he had a feeling that they were close enough that the dimensionally displaced dude had an idea. Back in his own time, his uncle had always behaved in a laid back manner for the most part, helping out where he could, but when someone he cared about was in trouble he changed. He became a disciplined soldier and moved like he would sooner die himself then let any harm befall his loved ones. The number of people who fell into this category, the list of people he cared about, were pretty much regulated to the Son family, the Brief family and a few people who interacted with his mother on a regular basis. Aside from interacting with these people, though, his uncle pretty much spent the remainder of his time training with Gohan or by himself in the mountains. In all the years he'd spent growing up with this uncle, he'd come to respect him both as a surrogate father and as a fellow warrior. That was why he knew that this Xander definitely had a plan and as such he would support the Saiyan as best he could.

"I know just the place!" Xander said with a smile that spoke of complete confidence in his choice, "Let's hurry up and get to Goku's place! I want to get there before sundown!"

With that his uncle pushed his speed even higher and, for a moment, he thought that the man would go Super Saiyan, leaving both Krillin and Tien in the dust. However it never happened, though he got the distinct impression that his father's cousin was barely able to keep himself from doing just that. He had to smile at that because, during the time between the deaths of the others and his own final fight with the androids, his uncle had always been the first to fly off at news of an android attack. It had been one of the things his uncle had always pounded into him when he could, even though most of the rules he taught to him were common sense. Saving lives took priority over everything else. Never allow your pride to dictate your actions. If you're not willing to lay your very life on the line in a fight then you've already lost. These were the rules that embodied how his uncle fought and handled a crisis when it appeared. Even after the injury that took him out of the battle against the androids Xander still did his best to stick to those rules. It was one of the reasons why he was so glad to see his uncle in such terrific form because it meant even if Goku couldn't manage to come up with a plan to win his uncle would.

Twenty minutes later, though, Tien let the rest of them know that he was going to break off and hook up with Chaozu so they could resume their training to beat the androids. Krillin didn't mind and neither did his uncle, but in the latter's case it could have been because his uncle didn't see the man as that much of an asset. When his uncle went into soldier mode, he tended to look at things for their strategic and practical worth rather than allow his inner willingness to allow extras to tag along to interfere. It was times like those that he often butted heads with his uncle Xander because, while he could see the older man's point of view, he still believed that every little bit helped. Watching as Tien veered away towards where he presumably where he'd left Chaozu waiting, Trunks hoped that their training paid off for them.

"So where's this place you've decided on?" Krillin asked as they continued on towards the Son home.

"Well it's a place that I don't think the androids would ever think of visiting in the near future but it's probably in pretty bad shape, seeing as how it's been abandoned for about seventeen years or so." Xander replied his confident smile never leaving his face, "Still, there's probably a few buildings still in reasonable shape and with a couple of capsules as well as some food it should be bearable for ten days."

"So where is it?" Krillin asked again, not liking the fact that Xander seemed to dodge the question for the most part.

With a chuckle his uncle told them precisely where he thought they should take Goku to hide out from the androids.

"YOU WANT TO TAKE GOKU **WHERE!?**"

&

_**Twenty Minutes Later, The Son Home, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well we made it and in about half the time I thought it'd take._ Xander thought as he, Krillin and Trunks touched down outside the Son home, _Considering what I'm about to drop on Chi-Chi, though, I almost wish we'd never even flown in this direction!_

Some warriors might consider it disgraceful for someone as strong as Super Saiyan to be afraid of woman with moderate martial arts training, who couldn't fly or fire off energy attacks. Personally, though, he was glad that she was limited like that because if she could do everything the rest of the Z-warriors could, then he'd have one point three seconds to see his life flash before his eyes before she vaped him. As it was, she could swing specially reinforced frying pans with deadly precision and had a temper worse than Cordy's if you took all her credit cards and snipped them in half right in front of her. The worst part of it all was that, because she was the wife of his first teacher and on the side of the angels, he couldn't lay a finger on her in retaliation. His only options were to yell back at her, cower in meek politeness or find a way to get the hell outta dodge as soon as possible. Sadly she knew all this by now, so it took some real inventive thinking to handle her and at the moment he was drawing a complete blank as far as how to break his idea to her.

Reaching up with his fist he knocked on the door and only thanks to previous experience with the unexpected as he able to leap back a bit and avoid getting smushed between the door and the side of the domed house.

"Oh Gohan!!" Chi-Chi exclaimed clearly thinking that her scholar-to-be had finally returned home.

Starting out this meeting with disappointment was not helping his confidence level any.

"Oh it's you guys." Chi-Chi groaned in disappointment as her hopes for the safe return of her son went down the drain.

"Nice to see you too, Mrs. Son." He said with perfect politeness, since it never paid to snark off at the woman no matter how justified you might be in doing so.

"Oh hey! Xander! Alright! I'm glad you guys made it here safely!" Yamcha yelled from the back room before dashing up to a position beside the wife of Goku.

"How's Goku?" he asked, wanting to get things moving along before the Harris luck and Mr. Murphy decided the androids needed a helping hand.

"He's okay. He's sleeping right now." Yamcha replied with a voice that made the champion of Earth's well being clear.

_Well, at least that's some good news._ He thought as he had been wondering in the back of his mind about whether or not Trunks' cure would really work, _Hopefully the high spirits from that will grease the wheels with Chi-Chi._

"So if you guys are here you must have defeated the androids, right?" Yamcha asked, proving that he was either a lazy bastard or a coward by hoping that the danger had passed already.

_I'm beginning to think that there's some kind of family connection between this idiot and that fat ass coward Yajirobe!_ He growled mentally as he wondered what the rest of the Z-fighters saw in the bum.

"Not…yet." Trunks replied sounding both embarrassed and disappointed at the same time.

"Look moron! We don't have time for a lot of chit-chat." He growled, not wanting to pussy foot around when there were more important things to be done, "Right now we need to relocate Goku to another location until he's back on his feet. So toss whatever large vehicle capsule you have on you out the door then help us get Goku into it!"

In another time and place Yamcha might have gotten annoyed at being treated like a minion and challenged the Saiyan to explain himself. This time, however, the idiot apparently had enough working brain cells in his skull to realise that pissing him off wasn't a smart move and immediately went to work to follow his orders to the letter. That just left Chi-Chi and, with her, he knew he'd have to be a bit more forthcoming with the reasons for the relocation and a lot more polite if he wanted her to obey.

"Mrs. Son, I know you want to know the reasons why you have to evacuate your home and I promise I'll explain everything once airborne." He said in a firm yet gentle tone of voice, "For now, though, I'd ask that you put together a camping package of essentials as quickly as possible. Whatever you bring must be enough to last ten days and the food can't be anything fancy. Nothing that needs more than a campfire or a portable stove to prepare, okay?"

For a moment he thought that he just might have to go a bit further with her but then apparently something clicked inside of her and she nodded. With that she began to move about the house like a woman on a mission, grabbing things as she went, before placing her selections on the dining room table. Looking at what she was gathering he could see that she had taken his guidelines seriously since nothing of what he saw looked like it needed much to render it edible. She also seemed to take the camping part literally as she grabbed blankets, sleeping bags and other assorted bits of camping gear out of a closet as well. Seeing the moron come back inside, Xander hoped that meant that the idiot had successfully deployed the capsule vehicle outside or else he might very well deck the fool.

"The air van is out and ready to go!" Yamcha said, sounding anxious for the next part of the plan.

"Then the two of us will carry Goku into it." He said before turning to Trunks, "Once we get him off the ground, grab his blankets, pillow and mattress and set them out in the van ahead of us."

Trunks nodded at this and together the three of them began to move towards the bedroom.

"What should I do?" Krillin asked sounding a little lost about what his role would be.

"You help Mrs. Son gather what needs to be gathered and carry it out to the air van." He replied with a little consideration for the stunted warrior, "Make sure it's off to the side since we'll be putting Goku in the middle."

"Right!" Baldy the Mighty declared before he began his task in earnest.

Once he, Trunks and the baka were in the room he could see for himself that Goku did indeed look much better than he had after the fight with Android 19. While there was still some signs of internal pain, it no longer looked life threatening for his first mentor. Motioning for Yamcha to take a position by Goku's shoulders, he moved to the foot area and with a one-two-three start, they lifted the seasoned warrior up. It only took a moment for Trunks to gather up the various parts of the bed and, in under two minutes, they were outside and making their way up the ramp into the back of the air van. With the bed laid out and half the stuff Chi-Chi had packed already inside, he could grin partially with satisfaction that things were going so smoothly. Rather than a car engine that died every five feet they were moving along like a well oiled machine and hopefully they'd be an airborne machine soon.

"Xander? Do you know where Gohan is?" Chi-Chi asked thankfully choosing a topic that was pretty safe.

"Bulma and Yajirobe's air car got damaged during the fight and Gohan was chosen to give them a lift back home." He replied as he and the ahou laid Goku gently down on the mattress in the air van, "He'll probably be back any minute after he's dropped off those two at Capsule Corps HQ."

His prediction was proven accurate since within a minute the mother of the half-Saiyan member of the Son home exclaimed with joy her son's name. Strolling out of the air van, he could both see and sense Gohan approaching quickly and was glad they didn't have to wait for the kid. He knew that even with his positive reply that the woman would probably have insisted that they wait as long as possible for Gohan to arrive before leaving for Goku's new sanctuary. While he could sympathize with her desire to see her son's wellbeing for herself he didn't want to risk the androids coming along anymore then he had to.

"Hey! What's going on?" Gohan asked as the pint sized half-breed touched down near the air van.

"You're home!!" Chi-Chi exclaimed before wrapping her son in a s/mothering hug, "Oh, my baby! I am so happy to see you!"

Gohan on the other hand wanted answers so he asked "Hey! What're you guys doing?"

"We're moving your dad to a more secure location." He replied keeping things short and sweet, "Now help your mom get the rest of the stuff on board so we can get moving."

With an extra pair of hands helping they were airborne five minutes later and naturally this was when he had to give the fool a direction to go in.

"Aim this rust bucket at the remains of the old Red Ribbon Army HQ and step on it." He said in a no nonsense tone of voice.

"WHAT?!" was pretty much the unanimous reaction from Chi-Chi, Gohan and Yamcha.

"Why are we taking Goku there?" Chi-Chi asked sounding more concerned than angry.

"We're going there because it's probably the safest place for him to recover in at the moment." He replied closing his eyes while in his cross-legged position, "All the others, from Capsule Corps HQ to Master Roshi's to Kami's place, are too well known as places connected to Goku. Gero would have definitely placed them at the top of the list of places where his hated enemy could be found if he wasn't at home."

"If we want to take Goku someplace they don't know about then the old Red Ribbon HQ is the last place we should go!" Yamcha yelled as he prepared to turn the craft towards safer locations, "They probably know that place better than we do!"

"You idiot! Think! The place has been abandoned for years, no one's set foot in it since Goku trashed it, those rust buckets wouldn't have any reason to place it in the top ten much less the top five places we'd hide Goku." He growled at the ahou behind the controls to the air van, "Unless they have their sensors **specifically** attuned to Goku to the point where they can track him even if he's not using any ki, it'll take them forever before they think to look there. According to Trunks Goku should be back on his feet in ten days or so, right? I think it's safe to say that those androids aren't in a hurry so it's the perfect place."

"What makes you think they can't sense him like that?" Yamcha asked, sounding like he liked poking holes in the young Saiyan's plan.

"Maybe they do but they're treating this whole thing like it's a game so I don't think they'll want it to end too quickly so, even if their sensors do know where Goku is, they aren't going to be in a rush to get to him." He replied confident that his depiction of the thought processes of the androids was accurate, "Now head for the Red Ribbon HQ ruins!"

While it looked for a moment like Yamcha was going to argue further he eventually seemed to come to the conclusion that it wasn't worth it. Probably because the idiot knew that if he made too much of a fuss he'd get tossed out of the air van entirely and Xander would drive them craft there on his own. In any case with that settled he supposed it was time to enlighten everyone about the current state of things now that they were underway. Thus he began to relate to them everything that happened from the moment the first signs of violence happened in South City to where the Z-warriors split up. He didn't edit anything out even though the others probably would have for Chi-Chi's sake because he figured she had a right to know just how dangerous the situation was. That and he was certain that if he kept quiet and she found out later he'd only wind up receiving more blows to the head with that super reinforced frying pan of hers.

"Are they really that powerful, Xander?" Gohan asked, sounding amazed that there was something out there that was so strong.

"Afraid so. To these androids, even a Super Saiyan like me or Vegeta aren't much more of a threat than a two year old child." He replied, not liking the current state of things but forced to admit that there was little he could do to change things at the moment, "Unless we find a way of getting a lot stronger soon or a way of weakening the androids, we won't stand much of a chance against them."

"But Goku was kicking that android's butt before the heart virus took the fight out of him!" Yamcha exclaimed unable to comprehend how androids could be stronger than a Super Saiyan.

"That's because the androids you saw weren't the ones that are terrorizing my time or the ones that killed you all in the other timeline." Trunks explained with worry at how his attempt to change the past was unfolding, "The ones that are the real threat are androids 16, 17 and 18. They're the ones we're going to have to beat if we expect to survive."

He was just about to state his agreement with the teen from the future when Chi-Chi let out a scream of horror and began to look through the bundles she'd packed for the trip. At first he thought that perhaps she had forgotten something and would soon demand that they turn around to get it. If she did that he'd offer to go back for it himself so that the rest of them could continue onwards to the ruins of the old Red Ribbon Army HQ. With the sort of speed he was capable of, he knew it would save time if only one person headed back for the missing item rather than turning the entire craft around. As it turned out, what the woman was looking for was on the plane but it hadn't been the crisis level issue he'd thought it would be. It had been Gohan's school text books. It had been a while but he'd almost forgotten about how anal Chi-Chi was when it came to making sure her son got a thorough education. The woman was obsessed that her son become something she could brag to her friends about and would serve her little boy better than martial arts skills. Personally he understood the need to get at least something in the way of an education but, obviously, the woman had never heard the phrase 'a sound body makes for a sound mind'.

_No point in arguing with her about it, though._ He thought as he looked away from where the woman was forcing a math book into his nephew's hands, _Even if I convinced her that now wasn't the time for homework, she'd jump on Gohan the second the androids were toast and probably hit him with twice the amount of schoolwork. Poor kid._

"So what're we going to do now? With the androids, I mean." Yamcha asked, looking over his shoulder briefly before putting his eyes back on the road where they belonged.

"Like I said: we either find a way to get ourselves stronger quicker or figure out how to bring the androids down to our level." He said without looking in the idiot's direction, "With things the way they are now, we won't stand a chance against them even if we come up with a foolproof strategy to take them down. A good plan is nice but if you don't have the manpower or firepower to execute it then it's worthless."

"Well, maybe there's something I can do to help." Trunks said sounding like he wasn't crazy about his idea, "I could travel to the past in my time machine and destroy the androids before Dr. Gero has a chance to activate them. It shouldn't be that hard now that I know where his laboratory is."

"Hey! That's a great idea!" Yamcha exclaimed enthusiastically from the driver's seat of the hover van.

"Not really when you think about it." He said deciding to toss some realism on the table, "You've already tried the 'go back in time and change things' route, Trunks, and you've seen how things have turned out. Sure, there have been some big changes but there have also been some pretty nasty slip ups also."

"Xander's right, plus I don't like the idea of you taking on the androids by yourself." Krillin said supporting the cousin of Vegeta, "What if something goes wrong? Besides, didn't you say that you're time capsule only had enough power for one more trip? I mean how would you make it back home? You could be trapped in the past forever."

"Besides which time travel is tricky business even under the best of circumstances." He said as another thought came to him, "I've seen enough examples of time travel in movies and TV shows to know that time is usually one of two things: either completely unchangeable or so endlessly difficult to change that any attempt made could backfire big time. There are simply too many variables to take into account to make a perfect change and make things stick. The fact that you're here and didn't see the differences we ran into coming might mean that even if you did go back nothing in the there and now would change."

"Could you dumb that down for us a bit?" Krillin asked clearly not understanding what was being laid down.

"Basically, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Trunks isn't from our future but rather the future of an alternate reality. This reality is similar enough to ours that we can't see any real differences." He replied with a short growl of annoyance, "I think what Trunks' version of Bulma did was create a ship that not only travelled back in time but also across dimensions as well. It probably doesn't have enough power to make large leaps across dimensions, so that's why his reality and our own is a close match. In the end it means if he hopped in his time machine and tried to travel back again he'd probably just wind up in another dimension again and change things there rather than change them here. Nothing he does using his time machine will change what's happening right here and now."

"So basically what your saying is that even if Goku beats the androids in this world, Trunks' world will still have the androids rampaging across the planet?" Krillin asked sounding like he had a pretty good grasp of things now.

"Yeah." He replied figuring that was all the reply that was needed.

"So then why did Trunks come back in the first place if he couldn't change anything in his own time?" Yamcha asked showing only the barest understanding of what was being said.

Trunks got up at this question and it was clear from the grim look on his face that the topic was something of a sore spot with him.

"My mother…you see it was my mother's idea to send me back to the past." Trunks explained as he looked out the craft window with a haunted look on his face, "She didn't think there was anything more we could do to help the people in our world. But she knew there were others we could help. I agreed with my mother that we should try to travel back in time but I had my own reasons for wanting to go. I hoped that in the past, with Goku's help, I would find out that the androids had some kind of weakness. That way I could go back to my time and even though I wouldn't be able to bring the dead back to life, I could at least save those still alive."

It was clear from the way the young hybrid spoke that he was lost in his own memories of the nightmarish world he was from and the desperate circumstances the people there lived under. He still couldn't quite picture it himself but what he could imagine motivated him all the more to make sure that things didn't turn out their way in this reality. In fact, if Bulma did manage to get him back to the Scoobies, he swore he'd hunt down the Gero of his world and make sure the madman didn't try anything similar. He'd seek out any and all variables that could lead to killer androids being made in his world and eliminate them with extreme prejudice. Giles and the others would probably view such actions as evil but they hadn't seen the level of devastation such creations could drop on an unsuspecting world. Just from seeing what the androids could do to a Super Saiyan AND what they could be hit with unfazed told him that nothing back home would be able to touch them. Even magic would probably need to be amped up to insane levels to even cause the mechanical monsters concern.

_It won't happen in my world._ He thought with a grim look of determination, _I __**won't**__ let it._

&

_**A Snowy Mountain Road, Same Time, Android 18's P.O.V**_

"18?" 17 asked without taking his eyes off the road even a little bit, "Why did you kiss that Saiyan earlier?"

"I did it because I felt like it." She replied in a positively bored manner as she tried to think up a way to endure this roundabout way to Goku's place.

"Felt like it?" 17 inquired, further sounding like he was satisfied with her fist answer.

"Yeah. He was smarter than those other idiots by not fighting us and came up with a good reason not to kill them all." She said with a sigh, since she knew her 'brother' wouldn't give up poking her with her actions of a while ago, "Plus he was kinda cute."

"Cute? He's a weak walking bag of flesh who we're going to kill either before or after we kill Goku, 18." 17 said as if to waken her from some stupid self-imposed delusion.

"Yeah. I suppose you're right." She said half-heartedly before directing her gaze out the window.

Realistically she didn't know where the idea that the Saiyan she'd kissed was cute came from because she'd pretty much sworn off men for a while now. All thanks to that…

_NO! He's dead and I'm not going to give him another thought!!_ She thought angrily with the only outward sign of her emotions being a slight narrowing of her eyes.

This pretty much put her in a bad mood for an hour straight but then, much to her annoyance, her thoughts eventually drifted back to the Saiyan that had talked both her and 17 out of killing Goku's weak little friends. While obviously displaying Saiyan traits consistent with the files that were in her database, he also had characteristics that were unique. As she'd stated to 17, the teenage Saiyan had displayed superior cunning coming up with his argument and even though she'd seen his true purpose of time buying beneath the words spoken it had been fairly logical. Unlike the morons he'd saved, he had seen the futility of fighting 17 and herself from the beginning, which put him above his comrades intellect-wise. He also had a backbone since, even after seeing his friends get the crap beat out of them, he showed no outward sign of fear or cowardice. That was more than normal humans could manage most of the time when confronted with beings of superior power. Most humans would let their fear control them, resulting in stupid courses of action being carried out, like attacking them or worshipping them. Given how stupid most people were on this planet, she'd bet on them trying to attack first and ask questions **never**. Not that it'd do them any good, of course, but humans were funny that way.

_So the wisdom to know when he's outclassed and the backbone to keep himself from going to pieces._ She thought with some interest as she watched the scenery roll by, _Interesting._

Still, she had to admit that 17 had a point when it came to the fact that they'd probably have to destroy all of Goku's little friends sooner or later. Either the two of them would have to blast through them all in order to get to their target and accomplish their mission or the idiots would try to avenge their slain leader afterwards, also resulting in their complete destruction. Would the young Saiyan follow the lead of Goku's other friends? Probably, since he seemed to value their existence enough to stop 17 and her from killing them. For some reason she felt her drive to get to Goku and accomplish their mission lessen somewhat. It was almost as if she was fond of the young Saiyan and didn't want to reach the point in time when she'd have to kill him.

_That's crazy!_ She thought gritting her teeth slightly, _Why should I care one bit about such a weakling?!_

If her programming and experience had taught her one thing it was that those with power made the rules and the weak's only choices were to serve or be destroyed. It was the **right** of the strong to force their will on the weak and to do otherwise was to risk becoming one of the weak oneself. She'd learned that the hard way early on…when…she'd first learned the truth about what Gero wanted from both her and her brother. Her mind rebelled at the thoughts and tried to force back the memories of those times and lock them away forever but only partial success was achieved. She could still recall the **pain** involved whenever Gero had integrated his machines into her body and the fact that he only used a mild sedative 'in order to verify the connection between the nervous system and circuitry'. She remembered the **humiliation** she suffered when he refused to give her proper clothes to wear both during, and often after, his tortuous operations. Most of all she remembered the **anger** she felt at her own body being forced to perform acts against her will and how it had stayed that way until 17 showed her how to escape it. With all these memories bubbling inside of her, she wished that 17 had let **her** deal the killing blow to that perverted old man. She'd **earned** that right! However what was done was done and there was no sense letting herself get worked up over it.

_Better to focus my thoughts on something more important._ She thought turning her eyes back to her brother.

"I'm enjoying the scenery, 17, but one question: where is Goku?" she asked grabbing hold mentally over the objective that was burned into the front of her mind.

"Relax 18. We'll be there before you know it." 17 replied dismissively as though they had all the time in the world.

"That's no answer." She stated making it clear he'd have to answer her questions better than that.

Turnabout being fair play and all.

"Admit it. You have no idea where we're going." She said informing her brother that she knew there was no destination being kept in mind with his driving.

"Goku's house is in a mountain village east district four thirty-nine." 16 said with his usual emotionless voice.

Most likely the giant was just as focused as she was when it came to getting their primary objective done with. While they had been strong enough and clever enough to liberate themselves from Gero's direct control, the directive to kill Goku was still burned into every circuit in their bodies. Until that goal was achieved, they could not achieve true freedom and that was why she wanted to kill the supposedly dimwitted Saiyan sooner rather than later. She wanted her true freedom back as soon as possible but 17 seemed content to test the boundries of their primary directive so he could have some 'fun'.

"Wow, I'm impressed." 17 said with no true respect in his voice, "Did Dr. Gero tell you that?"

"He did. We will get there faster if we fly." 16 responded with a small smile that indicated this was the course of action he'd prefer to take.

"You're right. That's what I've been saying." She said glad to have at least one other person in the van with her that knew the right course of action, "It makes no sense for us to drive. What a complete waste of time!"

"Chill out, 18. It's not a waste of time if we're having fun." 17 said, clearly not caring about accomplishing their directive in the near future so long as they did it eventually.

She let out a sigh at this statement and debated whether or not it'd be worth it to simply leave the van with 16 and fly to Goku's home. If all 17 wanted to do was have fun then he could do so without her because as far as she was concerned any fun that could be had by driving to Goku's place would be soured by the directive burning in her mind. However, even as her anger, her impatience, demanded that she leave her brother behind in order to accomplish the mission as soon as possible, memories of the past reminded her of her debt to him. It had been he who had first discovered the weak point in Gero's programming, the weak point that had allowed them to rebel against him the first time, and the weak point that finally permitted them to slay the old man. She owed him much and so she would do her best to restrain her temper and impatience despite her better judgment. She just hoped that her sibling's preference for fun would not cost them their objective in the end.

_Then again maybe I could use it to my advantage. _She thought as once again her whim concerning the young Saiyan she'd kissed surfaced, _After all what could be more __**fun**__ then keeping a Saiyan as a pet?_

&


	10. A Threat Unknown

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained in this chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained in this chapter. It is the rightful property of the creators and associated companies. I make no money on this whatsoever and have no plans to do so in the future.

&

_**One Hour Later, The Air Van, Xander's P.O.V**_

"It looks like we'll be at the ruins of Red Ribbon Army HQ in about an hour." Yamcha said from his location in the pilot's seat.

"Good. Once we're there we'll find the most defendable building out of the whole lot and put Goku inside." Xander stated from her cross-legged meditative position, "We'll pop open all the capsules that have food, water and basic utilities in them. There should be enough of everything to sustain us for the ten days we need to wait for Goku to get better."

"Is it sanitary?" Chi-Chi asked as she replaced the damp cloth that had been on Goku's forehead, "I don't want him to beat this virus just to catch a cold."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Son. I'll use a little trick I came up with when I was doing chores at Capsule Corps to make sure everything's sterilized where Goku'll be." He replied doing his best to keep the woman happy with their hiding place for her husband.

"What trick?" Krillin asked with some interest.

"It was something that I came up with when Bulma's dad gave me an old warehouse to clean out." He replied remembering how dirty that building was, "A perfectly calibrated continuous ki blast that was just hot enough to burn away the top millimetre of anything it hit. Took a few tries to get it just right so I didn't wind up blowing holes in the place but I got it eventually."

"Sounds like a cool trick." Yamcha said before a thoughtful look came over him, "Think you could teach me how to do it. It'd make cleaning my place a lot easier."

"Tell you what, you train until you can take me on right up until just before I go Super Saiyan, and I'll think about it." He replied with a smug smile confident that the idiot would never reach that level.

"Never mind." Yamcha grumbled from his spot in the pilot's chair.

_Typical. I wonder if he actually put any effort into training these past three years or if he spent most of his time goofing off. _He thought with a mental shake of his head, _If he'd just put some serious effort into his training, he wouldn't be such a push over. _

Still, he supposed that he couldn't put all of the blame for the guy's strength on his training methods. From what he could tell, the humans of this dimension just didn't have the biological freedom to get as strong as a Saiyan or a Namek. From what little he could figure out on his own, since he wasn't a scientist or even an expert on ki usage, Saiyans and Nameks didn't really have an upper limit to how strong they could become. After all, Goku went from being a little over three hundred or so on a scouter to someplace in the millions. The same sort of increase happened to both Vegeta and himself. Also, judging from what he had observed of Piccolo, the Namek's training had paid off big increasing his power level as well. As for Krillin, Yamcha and Tien, though, their power levels might have been larger than they were before future Trunks first appeared but it wasn't a dramatic increase. There was also little reason to think that they'd get all that much stronger from here on out and certainly not in time to be a match for the Androids. They might be able to break the one million mark if they pushed themselves hard enough but they wouldn't be able to make the two million or higher mark. It wasn't prejudice or Saiyan superiority making him think this but rather a simple fact of life that he had come to believe.

"ANYway, don't you think we should let Bulma know what we're up to?" Yamcha asked without taking his eyes off the sky, "You know she'll be pissed if we don't keep her up to date on everything that's happened since Gohan took her back to Capsule Corp HQ."

"So who wants to make the call?" Krillin asked, obviously not wanting to have to do it himself.

Unfortunately everyone else in the vehicle looked right at him, making it clear he had been outvoted and that he had no choice in the matter.

"What? You think I should call her? NO WAY!" Krillin exclaimed, clearly not wanting to have to break the bad news about the battle with the androids to the aqua green haired genius.

"C'mon! I'm flying the air van, Xander's meditating, Chi-Chi's taking care of Goku and she's Trunks' mother." Yamcha said as though he truly had an unbeatable argument, "You're the only one not doing something that can talk to her safely enough."

"Alright!" Krillin said in defeat as he moved over to the co-pilot's seat, "No offense, Trunks, but your mom's just hard to deal with sometimes."

"Heheheh! Believe me I know what you mean!" Trunks said, sounding liking a kid that had been on the receiving end of many a moment when Bulma's steamroller personality just flattened him no matter what he did.

A few beeps and boops of a phone number being punched in and a woman that sounded like Bulma's mother came on the phone.

"Capsule Corp." said the female voice.

"Oh, hello. This is Krillin speaking." Krillin said obviously displaying his wonderful phone conversational skills, "I was wondering if I could speak to Bulma."

"Bulma? Yes! Please hold while I transfer your call." The woman said in the annoyingly chipper voice most phone agents had.

Then came the next most annoying thing when dealing with the phone bureaucracy and that was the 'music' that they played when they put you on hold. Now, some phone numbers at least had the sense to put current music in there but most of them chose music that made getting your teeth drilled seem like paradise. Fortunately the transfer time wasn't all that long and Bulma soon picked up.

"Krillin! What's wrong? Is everyone alright? TALK TO ME!!" Came Bulma's usual demanding voice from the speaker attached to the air van's built in phone, "I've been so worried! Where are you calling from? I tried calling Gohan at his house but there's no answer. It just rings and rings. By the way, is my son there? I-I mean Trunks, you know, the one from the future."

"Yeah, uh, he's sitting right behind me." Krillin replied, sounding a little overwhelmed by all the questions that had just been fired at him.

"He is! Well then put him on the line!" Bulma said with some excitement.

"He can hear you on the speaker so go on and say whatever you need to say, Bulma." Krillin said looking at the phone like he was expecting Bulma's head to pop right out of it.

"Well tell him we received a call today from this guy who lives out in the middle of the country somewhere to the west of here." Bulma said through the speaker next to the phone, "He claims he found some weird old abandoned vehicle and he wants to keep it. But the thing is he didn't know how to fly the thing so he phoned us and asked us if we knew."

"Yeah, go on." Krillin said when a sizeable pause in Bulma's talking came up.

"He tried to explain what type of vehicle it was but he didn't make any sense. We didn't know if it was one of our products but the guy insisted it had the Capsule Corps logo on it." Bulma said, sounding like she was moving about the room she was in, "So we asked him to send us a picture of it. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it! It was a picture of the time machine Trunks came in. I also have some bad news for you because it's a complete wreck."

This news completely floored everyone in the vehicle and pretty much made meditation an impossibility for him. Another time machine! From the way that future Trunks described the future the Bulma from his time frame had to scrounge for every last part just to make his. The odds of that woman being able to construct a second one were pretty damn slim.

"What? But that can't be true!" Trunks said as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small metal box, "Here! Look! I put it up. I put it back into its capsule when I landed."

"He says the time machine is right here." Krillin said speaking into the phone to relay the information to Bulma.

"Seriously! But then… well, the time capsule in the picture is the same but it does look like it's been sitting there for a while." Bulma said sounding like she was taking the news about as well as they were, "It's almost completely overgrown with moss and stuff. So exactly how many time machines did we make in the future?"

"How many? Well we barely managed to make one." Trunks replied, obviously having a problem figuring out this bizarre situation.

"What? That's strange. I'm sure this is a time machine in the picture but I want to make sure." Bulma said once Trunks' statement had been relayed by Krillin, "Hang on! I'll just send you a copy of the photo through the fax. Trunks, I want you to take a good look at it."

A few seconds later a photo was printed out from a fax machine that sat beneath the main phone that was built into the air van. With no hesitation, Krillin tore it free and handed it back to Trunks.

"Huh?! That's my capsule alright. There's no mistaking it guys." Trunks said with growing confusion at how a one of a kind thing could be in two places at once, "That's the one I came back in. What the hell is going on!?"

"Looks like our theory about you coming from an alternate timeline completely unconnected to our own is right on the money." Xander said, deciding it was time to put his two cents into the conversation, "If that's the case, then there's no way of knowing just how many different realities out there have futures kinda like yours. We could have time machines popping up by the dozen, eventually."

"Maybe. Krillin, ask her if she knows where this is." Trunks said sounding like he was going to give the possibility some thought.

"Hey Bulma listen! Where did you say the capsule was?" Krilling asked as he spoke into the phone.

"Well I'm sure exactly but it looks like it's somewhere out in the west 10-50 area." Bulma replied sounding like she was giving them her best guess, "You going?"

"Yes! I've got to check this out." Trunks said making it clear he wanted to get this mystery out of the way before it could interfere with the mission to defeat the Androids.

"Alright, then I'm going too. I'll meet you there." Bulma said in a tone he recalled many a time whenever the woman laid down the law to Vegeta.

There was no changing her mind now.

"Do you think that's safe?" Trunks asked before his question was relayed to Bulma.

"Remember, Trunks: 'mother always knows best'." Bulma replied as if it was perfectly logical for her to be in the right.

With that the connection was cut off and nothing but lifeless dial tone filled the air until Krillin hung up himself.

_If I ever get married, __**please**__ don't make it to a woman with an overpowering personality like Bulma's!_ Xander thought, shuddering a bit at THAT predicament, _I don't mind strong women but I draw the line at the type that won't listen to a word I say._

&

_**The West 10-50 Area, An Hour and a Half Later, Trunks' P.O.V**_

"Trunks! Trunks I found it!" Gohan from shouted a short distance away.

Changing course, he immediately flew in the direction of the child version of his mentor with an alternate version of his Uncle Xander following close behind. They'd arrived only a few minutes ago but, without precise co-ordinates, they'd been forced to spread out and search the area. Not an easy thing to do with all the hills and numerous trees but apparently the unknown capsule wasn't all that hard to find. Clearing the trees that were between him and Gohan's position, he quickly spotted the run down and moss covered capsule in a valley. As one, the three of them landed a short distance of the capsule and he began to look it over in order to confirm visually that it was indeed his capsule. While the odds of someone else making an exact duplicate of his time capsule were slim, his Uncle had been right that one could have come here from an alternate time dimension. Bit by bit, he looked at each component comparing it with what he'd seen of his own capsule both in its complete form as well as when his mother had been building it. It took a few seconds but, based on what he could see, everything matched up.

"That's it alright, Gohan. Good work." He said, looking up at the badly damaged time machine.

Before they had any time to say anything else, their ears picked up the sound of an approaching aircraft. Turning and looking to the sky, they were easily able to pick up the familiar flicker of light consistent with sunlight reflecting off the polished metal surface of an air vehicle. It was definitely his mother based on the ki signature he was sensing but that wasn't all that surprising since Capsule Corps HQ was closer to the West 10-50 area than Yamcha's air van had been when they'd left it. Gohan lifted off, saying he was going to guide her in, which was a good thing since it had taken them a couple minutes to find the second time capsule and he didn't want to waste time waiting for her to find it. Looking over at his Uncle, he could tell that Xander didn't want to wait long to find out the truth about this capsule either. While he was just starting to get to know this Xander, there were enough similarities to the one in his time that he could figure out what must be going on in the pureblooded Saiyan's head. While he had to admit that his father's cousin had been acting like a jerk since he'd returned from space, he could sort of understand why. His father had probably spent the past year dividing his time between training Xander and hammering into his Uncle's head what it meant to be a 'proper Saiyan'. Add to that the present situation with the Androids and his Uncle was probably just under a lot of stress and was dealing with it the same way he dealt with Vegeta. Hopefully, though, Xander would find other ways of coping because he was pretty sure the others would only let him mouth off to them for so long before they fought back.

It only took a few minutes for Gohan to guide Bulma to where he was but he'd spent the time taking in the scenery as well as the local wildlife. It wasn't something he really had had the opportunity to do back in his time because, thanks to all the chaos caused by the Androids, none of the animals were brave enough to approach anything humanoid. As he heard the engines of the air vehicle coming in for a landing, he looked up as his young mother descended towards him.

"Hello down there!" Bulma yelled from the cockpit of her craft.

With a lot of noise and plenty of dust, the craft touched down scaring away any of the animals he'd been looking at earlier. While this time lacked the terror filled atmosphere of the Androids rampaging across the planet loud noises and wind were still enough to scare off most creatures.

"Hi Trunks!" Bulma said as she got out of her craft, "I'm back. Did you miss me?"

"I guess so," he replied, not knowing exactly what to say or how to behave towards the younger version of the mother he'd always known.

"Well, tell me: what do you think of the younger version of your mother?" Bulma asked fishing for a compliment or two, "Pretty cute, huh?"

Suffice it to say that being asked by a younger version of his mother whether or not she was cute did nothing to make him any more at ease than he already was.

"Well…I'd say you…haven't changed all that much." He replied, sticking to an answer that was at least somewhat neutral.

"You mean then I'll keep my girlish looks for at least another ten years?" she asked sounding overjoyed that she'd age gracefully, "Oh, this is **great**! Heheheheheh! This is so embarrassing! Hahahahahahaha!"

"Well, this is touching but can we get to the real reason we're here?" Xander asked, sounding like he'd had all he could stand of Bulma trying to bond with her son from the future.

"Yeah. Take a look at this." He said as he took out the capsule from his pocket that was the miniaturized state of his time machine.

With a click and a throw towards an open space, there was a poof of smoke that soon parted to reveal his perfectly maintained and functional time machine.

"As you can see, this is the time capsule I travelled back here in." he said as he walked up to stand beside the recently enlarged time machine.

"Which means that this other capsule isn't yours after all." Bulma said, now finally convinced that her son had been telling her the truth over the phone earlier.

"Actually, they're both mine in a way but based on what I've figured out with Uncle Xander, this one here is from another temporal dimension than the one I'm from." He said, indicating the run down and moss-covered time capsule, "Based on what we figured out, the time capsule my mother developed not only allowed me to go back in time but hop from one dimension to another, so it stands to reason that this other time capsule also came from another temporal dimension as well."

"Well, that makes sense but then who used this second time capsule to come here?" Bulma asked as her own scientific mind thought the theory over.

"Well let's take a closer look and maybe we'll pick up some clues." Xander said before he rose into the air and headed towards the transparent lid of the rundown time capsule.

He and Gohan soon followed and began a much closer examination of the ruined time capsule.

"Wow! How weird! It's melted." Gohan said taking a look at the large hole in the transparent canopy of the craft.

"Trunks? What kind of material was the canopy made of?" Xander asked, bringing his eyes to a spot an inch away from the edges of the hole, "Was it ordinary glass or was it special somehow?"

"Nothing too out of the ordinary. Mom said she used the same type of material that had been used to create the windows of the ship Goku had taken to Namek." Trunks replied after considering the question for a moment.

"So, something strong enough to stand up to the stresses of space travel but apparently not strong enough to hold up to an energy blast strong enough to melt it." Xander said with a thoughtful tone of voice.

"Yeah, but it looks like the blast came from **inside** the ship." Gohan said with some confusion, "Why would someone do that?"

"Maybe something happened in transit and the canopy wouldn't open?" Xander asked, proposing a possible scenario.

"Well there's one way to find out. Stand back." He said as he reached over and pressed the external switch that would open up the craft.

While it was a lot slower than normal, the canopy did open up the way his did though from the sound of things the inner works were in serious need of repair. Still, there were no signs so far that would indicate that whoever had used the time capsule to come here would have had trouble getting out.

"Well then it looks like whoever blasted a hole in this thing was just plain impatient to get out." Xander said in a tone that he used whenever he really got his brain thinking.

"So, Trunks? What do you think made the hole?" Bulma asked from her spot on the ground.

"Honestly I wish I knew." He replied honestly as the rising number of questions were making him uneasy.

Leaning over to take a closer look inside, he spotted his first clue of what might have used the time machine but it wasn't all that informative. It looked like a large purple walnut with bumps on it that had split into two halves and emptied out by something. Was it the remains of a snack that the person that had used the time capsule had brought along for the ride? Hopping into the time capsule, he picked up the two halves and looked at them more closely in an effort to determine what they were or why they'd been left in the craft.

"What in the world are those?" Gohan asked with ignorant eyes.

"I don't know, Gohan, but I can tell you right now it probably wasn't anything good." Uncle Xander said like his future alternate version often did whenever he thought the Androids were up to something new.

"What makes you think that?" Bulma asked with genuine curiosity.

"It's two halves of an unknown type of shell, in a time machine and no sign of whatever might have been inside it aside from a big ass hole in the ship." Xander replied as though she'd asked an obvious question, "How can **anything** good possibly come from this?"

"Hey! You don't have to act all grouchy about it, Xander!" Bulma said, starting to show her dislike for her step-cousin's attitude, "Bring them down here and let me have a look."

Obeying the woman's command, Gohan grabbed the two halves and brought them down towards the heir to the Capsule Corps Empire. For a minute or so he could see his mother looking at the two halves from various angles as well as putting them together to see what it would have looked like when it'd been whole. With 'hmmms' and 'huh' sounds coming from her, he was reminded of how his older mother had acted whenever she found the free time to work on something in her lab. Even in the future where everyone was in constant fear for their lives, his mother still took the time to indulge in her scientific interests from time to time.

"Well? What do you think Bulma?" Gohan asked, sounding like he'd be interested in what the genius had to say.

"My guess is that it's a kind of egg shell or something." Bulma replied, sounding only half certain.

An egg shell? From the future? He thought as he tried to think up what the implications of that could be.

He was beginning to see his Uncle's point of view on this. The future in which this time machine was created was not a safe place and since he didn't think his mother would have created something like that shell it left a nasty uncertainty to deal with.

"It sure is strange looking." Gohan said still hovering a few feet in the air, "What comes out of a shell like this?"

Looking around the interior of the capsule and at the hole in the canopy he could faintly see signs of dried blood or a blood-like substance staining the chair as well as the edges of the hole. That meant that whatever had been the egg shell his mother was holding could very well be the same thing that made the hole. He was **NOT** liking where these clues were leading him. Still, it'd be best not to jump the gun. The first thing he needed to do was find out exactly when this craft arrived and get some kind of idea of when it came from. Sitting down in the cockpit with only mild disgust, considering what was probably dried into the seat, he activated the console in front of him. The machine turned on but, based on the way that the various displays and screen were flickering, it was obvious that the fuel cells were down to fumes at the moment.

"It looks like there's not much energy left in here." He said to let the others know what he was doing, "I'd better work fast."

Typing commands and flipping switches as quickly as he could, he tried to extract the information he was after. It was a nerve racking couple of minutes because of his fear that the next time the displays flickered would be the time the ship gave out on him.

"C'mon, c'mon! Don't give out on me!" he said trying to verbally encourage the craft's systems to hold on just a little while longer.

It took a few more seconds but eventually he was able to bring up enough information on the displays to figure out one crucial fact.

"I think I found out when the capsule landed here." He said as he did the math in his head to bring all the data together, "It looks like it was three years ago."

"Not good. If something landed here in a time machine three years ago and we're just learning of it now, it means we're either really sloppy or whatever was in here is very sneaky." Xander growled as yet another dangerous fact was revealed, "This is definitely not of the good."

"No wait! It came here four years ago!" he discovered as some last fragment of data revealed itself to him, "That just might explain a few things. It means that three years ago when I arrived and defeated Freiza whoever used this time capsule had already been here for a year. Is it possible that this person is the one that altered the timeline so much? There can't be any other explanation!!"

"While I agree that something nasty is afoot, let's not jump the gun." Xander said, calming down a bit from his earlier dislike of the growing situation, "Until we get a better idea of who was using this time capsule, we can't confirm anything. Let's look around the immediate area for some more clues. Unless our mystery guest can fly there should be something for us to find."

While his inner worrier wanted him to continue to dwell on worst case scenarios he knew his Uncle was right. Gather the facts first and then come up with a theory. He just hoped that once they gathered all the facts it painted a better picture than was currently in his mind.

&

_**The Ruins of the Red Ribbon Army's HQ, Same Time, Yamcha's P.O.V**_

"Well, it isn't a luxury suite, but it looks like Xander was right." Yamcha said as he finished unpacking everything they'd brought with them from the Son home, "As long as it's only for ten days, this place should be fine."

"I suppose so." Chi-Chi said with the same frown she'd been wearing since they'd landed in the ruins, "Still, I wish I'd brought my vacume cleaner and some disinfectant. You can never be too careful when it comes to cleanliness."

"It'll be fine. Look, if you're really worried about it, there's a town about an hour away I can make a quick trip to." He said, recalling what he knew about the area, "It's not exactly modern but it should have most of the basic stuff."

"No, that's alright, Yamcha. It's just that with Goku just starting to get better, I don't want him to be cured just to get a cold from this place." Chi-Chi said with a sigh at how things had turned out.

"Don't worry. With the heart virus almost completely gone Goku will bounce back in no time." He said doing his best to reassure the wife of one of his best friends.

Truthfully, though, he was worried that they might have bigger things to worry about than Goku getting cold. While he had initially been pessimistic about Xander's choice of hiding spots for the leader of the Z-warriors, he now had to admit that it made sense. If the Androids really were hunting for Goku then they'd check places where their target would seek refuge in. While the old Red Ribbon Army HQ was connected to their target, it would have to be pretty far down the list of places to check out. Still, he couldn't help but remember how helpless he'd felt after encountering those other Androids in South City. He'd been training day in and day out (a few breaks in between but, hey, 'all work and no play') since they'd been warned about the coming arrival of the Androids. He'd pushed himself as hard as he could to get stronger, faster and come up with new combo moves to surprise opponents with. Right up until they'd all met up at South City, he'd been so certain that he'd reached a new level of excellence and would really be able to kick some mechanical ass when the time came. Instead he'd been beaten as easily as a child would have been and, when he'd seen first had how deadly the Androids that showed up really were, he knew he was outmatched.

_Now they all tell me that three more Androids have shown up and they're even stronger than the one that beat me! _He thought with a bit of a whine, _Its getting so that if you're not a Super Saiyan or a Namek, you can't do anything heroic anymore!_

He knew he couldn't really blame Goku or even Xander for the growing difference in power between the normal humans and those from other planets. While he'd taken down a few space men, it was clear that some species simply had an edge that humans lacked. For the Namek's, he supposed it was the fact that they created the Dragonballs and had regenerative powers. These two factors somehow allowed them to reach power levels much higher than your average human. For Saiyans, it was the simple fact that they were a warrior race and were built for fighting. Everything from their ability to transform to the fact they received a power boost after recovering from a near fatal wound confirmed this. For humans, they had no such special abilities that helped them out in a fight. All they had was hard work and a sharp mind to make the most of what power they had. However, he was no Master Roshi, despite having trained under him for a time. He could think up a few slick moves and, given time, he could get much stronger but he doubted he'd ever get his name put into any martial arts history book.

Still, at least he wasn't alone in that department. Tien and Chiaozu were also lagging behind in the power department just like him but, like him, neither was willing to hang up their fighting clothes just yet. They might not have what it took to take on the leader of the bad guys but they could handle minions just fine. That'd let Goku and the others focus their power on where it needed to go rather than get distracted handling small fry. While not in the spotlight like he'd like, he was willing to accept playing second string since there wasn't all that much choice in the matter. He just hoped that things didn't get any worse with the next big bad that popped up, otherwise he'd get pushed out of the fighting scene completely.

He wasn't sure that his ego could take a hit like that.

For a long time he'd been proud of his fighting skills and he'd gotten by on that strength for quite a while. When he'd hooked up with Goku and started using that strength for something other that stealing, he'd found he liked helping people out. For so many years that feeling he got when he'd made the big save or somehow helped put some bad guy down made any injuries he sustained bearable. If things got to the point where he could no longer make a meaningful contribution to the fight then he honestly didn't know what he'd do. Go back to being a bandit? Not exactly the direction he'd be proud choosing. Maybe he could go on the martial arts tournament circuit. He was fairly certain he'd do well there, since most of the fighters weren't anywhere near his current strength level. Plus there was money in it and Kami knew he could always use some of that. The only downside to that was the fact that the matches would be too easy. He'd always be pulling his punches and the odds of him coming up against a fighter that could really make him work for his victory were not good at all. Was he willing to trade a satisfying fight for armloads of cash? There was no easy answer to that question.

_Best not to think about it._ He thought as he began to take out what Chi-Chi'd need for making supper, _With a little luck, the next villains that pop up will be weak enough that I can make a difference in the fight._

&

_**Snowy Mountain Region, Ten Minutes Later, Android 18's P.O.V**_

"I don't understand how Sixteen can be so calm right now." Android Eighteen said as she looked into the rear of the van they were driving, "It's been hours since he opened his eyes, let alone said anything. You'd think he'd be excited that we're on our way to Goku's house but instead he just sits there like a rock."

"Leave him alone, Eighteen." Android Seventeen said from his place behind the steering wheel, "Sixteen is just focused on fighting Goku. Now relax, we'll be in the next town soon. You'll finally be able to find some new clothes there."

"Excellent! I can't wait to get out of these old rags." She said genuinely happy to be able to change out of the frayed get up Gero had put on her, "You think you can drive a little faster?"

"Yeah." Seventeen replied as he pushed the gas pedal down a bit further.

While Gero might have done his best to burn away their humanity in order to turn them into the perfecting fighting machines, she could still recall bits and pieces of her old life. It wasn't a nice one from what she could remember but there had been happiness there for the most part before something had happened, forcing Seventeen and herself out onto the streets. She couldn't remember what had happened but, considering her memories went from a warm loving home to living in a deserted, run down building, it had to be something major. She still retained the one trait that all young women had and that was the love of shopping and getting new clothes to wear. While some might make fun of her for wanting to look good for the people she'd likely be killing, she didn't see why she couldn't look hot while fulfilling her mission. Then, of course, there was the fact that she might run into that unique Saiyan again and while she'd kept her mouth shut about it with Seventeen, she'd decided to see how far she could go with the interesting man. It'd be difficult with her wanting to kill one of his friends, but she figured she could persuade him to switch sides. After all, fighting her along with Seventeen and Sixteen was futile. Not one of Goku's friends or even Goku himself stood a chance at beating them and what kind of moron would throw away their lives for nothing? If the cunning Saiyan was truly as smart as she figured he was, then he'd see this and just step aside.

If not…well…she'd handle him herself. A quick blow to the back of the head or perhaps breaking a few bones would put him out of the fight and then after some cool down time she'd approach him again.

Looking at the endless scenery of forest and snow going by outside her window, she had to wonder if it'd really be worth it to pursue some kind of relationship with the Saiyan. She didn't even know his name, much less what his interests were, and even if she made sure he survived the battles to come, what were the odds that he'd even take her up on anything he offered her. More than likely he'd hate her to the very core of his being and swear to avenge his fallen friends. Then she'd have no choice but to kill him since any chance at winning him over would be reduced to so much ash. Yet, every time she considered just forgetting about him, the memory of how good it'd felt kissing him would emerge and her heart would rebel against the idea. Regardless of what Gero had turned her into, she was not going to let those changes define who she was or what she could do in the future. Her destiny was going to be forged through her own choices, devised by her own mind and not because of all the metal that had been surgically implanted into her body. That was why she was bothering to go along with Seventeen and Sixteen to kill Goku. Despite all their efforts, the mission to kill Goku was the one thing the Red Ribbon scientist put in them that they weren't able to circumvent. She knew that her brother was trying to find a way around it but, at the moment, it looked like the only way to get rid of the damned directive was to obey it and kill Goku. Then they'd all be free to do whatever they wanted without the compulsion to complete their mission constantly at the front of their mind.

Thinking on that, the day that she'd truly be free, she wondered what she'd do then and where she'd go. With Goku and his friends gone, the odds of anyone being able to so much as leave a mark on her would be gone completely. Add to that the self-sustaining systems Gero had incorporated into their design and she'd probably live longer than any other human on the planet. Certainly not forever but long enough that she could probably experience everything worth enjoying before finally dying like everything else did, sooner or later. Knowing Seventeen he'd probably go looking everywhere for something 'fun' to do and, once he ran out of the normal things, he'd probably start blowing things up. It had to be a guy thing, the love of blowing things up, because while she didn't mind causing the odd explosion, she wasn't thirsty about it like he was. Still, she wouldn't get in his way if he chose to start blowing up cities at random but it might be worth looking into a way to get him to show some restraint when he did it. After all, Gero was proof enough that if you motivated a human enough they could find a way to do just about anything.

That included putting together a weapon capable of killing Androids even if it meant blowing up the entire planet in the process.

_Definitely something to think about._ She thought before she let her mind wander from thought to thought.

Many of those thoughts featuring a certain Saiyan she had her eye on.

&

_**The West 10-50 Area, Same Time, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well, this is turning out to be a waste of time! _Xander thought as he glided along through the air looking for anything out of the ordinary, _Twenty minutes of looking and nothing! Still, we can't just let something like this go._

It had been twenty minutes since he, Trunks and Gohan had begun looking around the area surrounding the run down time machine. So far they had bupkis to show for it and it was beginning to get to him. They already had enough to worry about with the trio of Androids capable of beating a Super Saiyan black and blue. They **did NOT** need some weird ass thing paying them a visit from another dimension like this! Looking over his shoulder, he tried to see if any of the others had found anything. Trunks was still floating about and nothing about his flight pattern indicated that he'd found anything of note. He'd been pretty miffed earlier before his mother had left to take the egg shell they'd found back to Capsule Corp for analyses. It had all begun when Bulma had asked about how Vegeta was doing and gone downhill from there. The boy from the future had probably had this ideal image of his father in his head and wasn't liking the reality of Prince Vegeta one bit. He couldn't really blame the kid for that because he'd experienced similar things with his Uncle Rory growing up.

It had been just after his parents had really started getting into the abuse and the drinking that he'd met his Uncle Rory for the first time. His opinion of his parents had been going downhill and, when he'd heard about an Uncle coming to visit, he'd hoped that this person would be better than the adults he was forced to live with. Every day up until Rory arrived, he'd spent his spare time dreaming up what the ideal Uncle would be using random comments his parents had made about the man as a base. He was a mechanic, he had a business selling cars and it was a business that had lasted for fifteen years. He had expected to see a fit man who had the look of a professional mechanic and car salesperson that valued an honest days work.

The reality had been quite different.

Instead he met a man who was just as big a fan of booze as his parents and wasn't above using a golf club to hit him if he didn't bring the beer quick enough.

So he could understand how Trunks felt having his mental image of Vegeta destroyed.

However, as he turned to see if Gohan had found anything, he saw that the son of Goku had definitely found something if the way he was looking in one fixed position while directing himself in the same direction. Abandoning his own search, Xander flew over to Gohan's side in an effort to see what the boy saw. Nothing immediately popped out for him but he knew that the kid wouldn't be acting like he was if nothing was truly there.

"What's up Gohan?" he asked hoping the boy could direct his eyes in the right direction.

"I think I see something over there." Gohan said as he continued flying towards whatever had caught his eye.

"What? What do you see?" he asked as he tried again to find whatever it was that had caught the boy's interest.

It took them a minute to finally get close enough to where he could make it out and, when he did, he just knew that things had just gotten a lot worse. Partially hidden behind a combination of both bushes and rocky outcroppings was what looked like the shell of some kind of insect. It sure as hell wasn't something he'd ever seen before and, as he heard a gasp from Trunks, it was safe to say it wasn't something all that well known in the future world he came from. It also looked to be quite old from the looks of things but, since he wasn't a scientist, he couldn't say how old. It was then that he really wished that Bulma hadn't left because even though he was fairly certain her field of expertise was machines. As one they went in for a closer look but this didn't improve their understanding of the object very much. While he was still listening to the others most of his attention was focused on the shell and trying to figure out if it was connected to what had been in the run down time machine. It was certainly possible, considering how close it was to where the time machine had been, but that was circumstantial evidence at best.

"I bet it walked off after it shed its skin." Gohan said as he continued to move around the insect shell.

"Yeah, but the question is how this thing got here in the first place." Trunks said with a tone indicating that this was his main point of concern, "Did someone send the egg back in time all by itself or did someone else tag along for the ride?"

He then bore witness to what had to be the most revolting thing he'd seen in a while. Trunks actually reached into the shell and felt around a bit before pulling his hand out to show that it had become covered with a purple mucus of some kind.

"It's still wet. Whatever shed this skin couldn't have done it too long ago." Trunks said before casting his eyes about the immediate area, "I'd say it shed its skin no more than a month or two ago, if not sooner."

With this proclamation all three of them began to extend their senses in all directions trying to see any sign of where the insect had gone or if it was somewhere close by. He personally doubted it but he'd been wrong before and this would be a bad thing to be wrong about. However, after three minutes of thorough scrutiny with both conventional senses as well as ki sensing, all they had to show for it was a group of furry animals that looked like Cousin It from the Addams Family.

"Well from the looks of things, whatever came out of that carapace is long since gone." He said deciding that any further searching would be a waste of time, "We'd better head for Goku's new hiding place. Right now his recovery takes priority over everything else. Still, let's keep an eye out while we protect Goku. We can't afford to let whatever that insect thing was get the drop on us."

"Right!" Gohan and Trunks said with a nod of determination.

With that all three of them took to the sky before setting course for the ruins of the Red Ribbon Army HQ.

&


	11. A Threat Revealed

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I only write for my own personal enjoyment and the enjoyment of those who enjoy reading my works

&

_**Airborne, Heading in the Direction of the Red Ribbon HQ Ruins, Gohan's P.O.V**_

"Hey Trunks!" Gohan yelled towards the teenage half-Saiyan flying behind him to his right, "Earth to Trunks!"

"Huh?" Trunks responded suddenly obviously roused from thinking about a serious topic, "Yeah?"

He didn't mind that the hybrid from the future hadn't been listening to him because what they had seen an hour ago was enough to distract anyone, but his curiosity was strong and he couldn't figure out what the whole thing was about on his own so that left only his Uncle Xander and Trunks. Checking out his one time training partner out from the corner of his eye, he could see that the newest Z-fighter was in deep contemplation himself. Seeing as how the grown up son of Vegeta and Bulma was closer to his own age, answers were more likely to come from him.

"Do you have any idea what kind of creature that might have been back there?"

"Nope. I'm afraid not." Trunks replied, not sounding too pleased by his lack of an answer, "But whatever it was, it was just about the ugliest thing that I've ever seen."

"Man! You're not kidding!" He declared agreeing that if the shed carapace was anything to go by the creature was definitely grotesque, "That think almost made me sick to my stomach."

"Definitely not something to see before sitting down to supper." Xander stated putting in his own opinion on what they'd found, "However, in my experience from hunting demons back home, the uglier something is, the more powerful it usually is. Here's hoping that this is as ugly as it gets!"

They all had a good chuckle at this although he was pretty sure that both Trunks and Uncle Xander were worried more about the powerful part than the ugliness part. It was then thought that something occurred to him that brought another level of puzzlement and worry into his mind.

"Hey! You said it got here about four years ago right?" He asked Trunks while keeping his gaze on the horizon.

"Yeah. At least that's what the indicator in the time capsule read before the batteries went dead." Trunks replied confirming what his memory had already told him, "Why?"

"I just find it hard to believe that a creature like that could be here for four whole years without anyone noticing it." He said making the dilemma he was pondering known, "I mean doesn't it seem a little bit weird to you?"

"Yeah. But what I wanna know is who sent it here and for what reason." Trunks replied agreeing that the odd bug-like creature from the time capsule was a mystery.

"Well, the way I see it, we've got one of two possibilities where this thing is concerned." Xander said with a serious tone to his voice, "Either this thing has been hiding for the past four years or it's smart enough to go about its business and not get caught. After all, the world's a big place and not all that crowded, so it's possible that thing could have slipped past everyone's notice so long as it steered clear of populated areas."

"Maybe but that still doesn't explain what it's doing here or who sent it." Trunks said, conceding the point his Uncle had made.

"There's no guarantee that anyone sent it at all, though." Xander said pointing out an assumption that could prove to be dangerous, "As for what it's here for, I'd say to make our lives more complicated is a safe bet. Since the time capsule it came in is identical to yours Trunks, plus four years of wear and tear, odds are it came from your time period. Somehow I doubt that that's a good thing."

He couldn't find fault with that train of thought because, to hear Trunks speak of his time, it was a nightmare where civilization was in tatters and two killing machines terrorized all. If someone had truly sent back or brought back that bug creature to some time four years ago, then it wasn't very likely that the intentions they had were benign. Whatever it was, if it turned out to be powerful, then it definitely would make their lives more complicated as well as potentially more dangerous. It was this kind of thinking that made him wonder if this world had a Hellmouth as well somewhere because the one trouble after another thing they were experiencing certainly made it feel that way. He remembered the stories that Xander had told him between sparring sessions about his hometown of Sunnydale and how almost every month there was a monster to be fought. Add to that the yearly apocalypse situation and there were definitely some similarities between the two worlds but he personally hoped that they didn't match up any closer. While he had no trouble defending the Earth against evil, he didn't think he could take having to do it every other week for the rest of his life.

_Xander can handle it, though. _He thought as he looked ahead for the first sign of their destination, _In all the time he's been here, I've never once heard him say he was thinking of staying here. The thing that's at the front of his mind is to somehow get home to help his friends._

While he understood the desire to return home to friends and family, he couldn't quash the hope that somehow Xander **would** stay here for good. He knew it was selfish of him but the time he'd spent with his Uncle had left him happy to have gotten to known the teenage Saiyan and wishing that Xan didn't have to go home. The others felt the same way he was sure, even though some would more easily admit it than the others. He knew his Dad loved the idea of someone else to spar with and perhaps even liked the idea of having half-brother. Vegeta, of course, would always act like Vegeta but for a Prince whose total number of subjects numbered two (three, if you included Trunks) having another pureblooded Saiyan could only be considered a good thing. Bulma loved having someone around Capsule Corps HQ who was actually willing to work for their room and board. Just about everyone who Xander spent time with seemed to have something positive to say about him afterwards.

He'd asked Bulma a few times about what progress she'd made creating a dimensional portal to send Xander home but, even with his studies, most of what she told him was **WAY** over his head. The basic parts he did understand were that she'd gotten the math for it pretty much finished and now just needed to bring those calculations into the real world. He had no doubt that she'd find a way to do it because when it came to scientific genius he couldn't think of anyone smarter than Bulma Briefs. Still, according to her, it would take about another year or so before a prototype could be assembled but he didn't mind. It just meant more time he could spend with his Uncle and that was definitely a good thing.

_Assuming we survive the androids and whatever that bug creature is._ He thought with a frown before he turned it into a look of determination.

They would survive!

They had to.

&

_**Northern Region, Inside James' Western Apparel, Fifteen Minutes Later**_

_**P.O.V of Android 18**_

_Of all the themes this town could have, __**why**__ did it have to be a Wild West theme?_ She thought as she looked at herself in the mirror.

They had arrived at the town about thirty minutes ago and, after some careful manipulation of 17, she had managed to get him to pull into the parking lot of the first clothing store they came across. She had been and still was eager to ditch the rags she'd been left with after pummelling Vegeta and wasn't inclined to be overly picky. Now she wished that they had just driven right through this town until they came to one that actually had some taste. Brown cowboy boots, black spandex body suit, brown skirt and a brown vest with oversized shoulders made up the entire outfit. Personally she thought that it had been designed with inferiority complexed nobodies with an overabundant desire to look 'butch' or something. According to the store owner, this was the **best** they had but if that was truly the case then she'd be doing this planet a favor by reducing it to a pile of ashes. She'd be doing these weak humans a favor by removing such a horrible place from existence but she supposed that would have to wait until after they killed Goku. If she blew up the place now then Goku's friends, including the Saiyan she was interested in, would show up and she'd have to kill them all along with 17. She was still trying to think up a good, logical, argument to use on her sibling android so that a certain fascinating Saiyan could be spared death. So far, though, nothing beyond 'it might be fun to have a Saiyan as a pet' had come up but it gave her something to think about in the van.

"So this is the best outfit in your store?" She asked in perfect deadpan as she continued to examine her appearance in the mirror.

"Yep! You won't find better than that little lady!" Replied the store owner, who was holding a shirt she'd tried on before.

_Little lady? _She thought as she glared at the man for implying that she was just a little girl.

The man wearing the cowboy hat did the smart thing and shut up.

"Well? Now, how do ya like it?" He asked, hoping to get the business transaction back on track.

"How do you **think** I like it?" She asked rhetorically, allowing her tone to state her opinion before she did, "It's grotesque but I suppose I can't expect much better in a hick town like this. It'll just have to do. Take care now."

With that she walked to the front door of the rags shop, knowing that if she stayed in there much longer 17 would probably get too bored and start blasting something for fun. She'd made it to the sliding glass doors before the store owner yelled at her about paying for the clothes she was wearing but, to her, that barely rated a 'whatever'. The human should consider himself lucky that she'd even bothered to ask his opinion or even concede to wear something from his shop. That she should pay for it (not that she had any money on her) was absurd and so she would treat it was such. As soon as she got into the passenger seat of the van and closed the door the idiot actually tried to intimidate her into getting out and paying. Fortunately one golem stare from 16 proved to be enough to scare the fool into backing off a few steps, allowing 17 to drive away. Not that she thought her scientific sibling wouldn't have driven off anyways, but at least this way she wouldn't have to listen to the hick screaming as he hung on for dear life.

Easing back into what was probably the most comfortable position she could expect to be in, she let her mind wander as her eyes took in the scenery passing by her window. Now that the issue of replaced clothing was dealt with there wasn't much else to do until they arrived at Goku's home and killed him so she decided to begin constructing battle scenarios with her bionic brain since it would at least distract her for a while and make the time go by quicker. First she went through the list of potential enemies: Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, that kid with the weird hair, Yamcha, Tien, Krillin, and the clever Saiyan that had been in her thoughts recently.

Goku was the primary target. All others were to be ignored until they became an obstruction or until the primary target was terminated. He was also the most powerful of the fighters in her files. File by file she reviewed the data that Dr. Gero had compiled on the primary target ranging from techniques to maximum physical abilities. It was nothing impressive really. Vegeta had been faster and more powerful than Goku was, if the files were accurate, when she'd fought him earlier and she'd kicked that fool's ass easily. Goku would be no challenge but she had to fulfill her primary programming before she could obtain the freedom she desired, so terminate him she would.

Piccolo was the secondary target. While not as powerful as Vegeta, the Namek was definitely the smarter of the two. His feud with Goku was well documented and his defeats were always near things that could really have ended in his favor if circumstances had been different. However, each defeat also forced the Namek to fight smarter and come up with new ways to overcome his foe. Still, he was weaker than Vegeta and, while his strategic mind might keep him alive for a bit longer, he'd still die in the end.

Vegeta was the third target. The little man wouldn't be a problem. She had already proven that she could beat him without any help from 16 or 17 and even if the arrogant hothead trained hard, it wouldn't matter. Gero had thoroughly measured each power increase Goku went through and came up with a formula to predict how strong he would get in a given stretch of time. She didn't believe the prince had enough patience to endure more than a year of training before he would break it off to restore his pride by fighting her. When that time came, though, she would finish him quickly and brutally since she very much doubted that he'd be any fun even with more training.

The unknown kid who came to Vegeta's rescue would be the fourth target. He had the same weird hair changing ability as the prince and comparable speed but was obviously an amateur. The fact that he relied on such a flimsy weapon in his attack against her proved that he didn't have very much confidence in his hand-to-hand combat abilities if he chose to use a sword. He had been swept aside easily though thanks to his recklessness and, even if the idiot managed to curb his recklessness, he would be no challenge.

Yamcha was no threat. He had not been present when the others had assaulted Gero's temple. That either meant that he had been slain, been seriously injured or was considered too weak to accompany the others. If he was still alive or had recovered from his serious injury he would be at best a plaything she could torment with near misses until she got bored and finally killed him.

Tien might have been considered a rival to Goku in the beginning but, based on the data she had, he had long since been left in the past by his former enemy. Still, there was one technique on file that could prove dangerous if it connected. The Tri-beam technique. Based on the files she had on it, the amount of power it had depended on how much of the user's own life energy they were willing to use per blast. Unlike other energy techniques that prevented users from performing them if they were too weak, the tri-beam could be used right up until the person expended the last of their life energy, killing themselves. If she, 17 or 16 were hit by the blast, it might not destroy them but they would take damage nonetheless. Still, it might be fun to at least let the three eyed human perform the technique just once for fun.

Krillin was about at the same level as Yamcha, if not lower in terms of the threat he posed. He had only one technique that stood a chance of hurting her and it was pathetically easy to evade and the good doctor had already provided both her and 17 with the perfect defence for baldy's Destructo Disk. Add to that the fact that he was one of the slowest and weakest of the forces allied to Goku and he wasn't even worth killing.

The final potential target was the Saiyan with no name that had persuaded her brother into letting the others live. He was a mystery in that she had no data on him, so she didn't know what techniques he favored or what tactics he would use in any given situation. However, given that he was allied with Goku and the others, it'd be fair to say that they had either trained him or passed on at least some of their techniques. If she used the data she had on the others and used her own judgment to determine who his trainer had been, she could make a reasonable guess about both his power and skill level. Logically the best people to train a Saiyan were other Saiyans, since they would know the stranger's limits as well as what he could potentially do. That meant Goku, Vegeta and perhaps the reckless boy with the sword would be the likely who taught her interesting young man. Using this premise, she began to copy all of the other Saiyan's techniques and strategies into her mystery man so she could begin to formulate a plan to deal with him. It took a bit longer than the others but, eventually, she was able to come up with at least ten scenarios where she could defeat him.

Only two of them though had a chance of leaving him alive afterwards.

She was about to ask 17 what he planned on doing after Goku was dead when her audio sensors, normally called her ears, picked up the sounds of sirens approaching from the rear. Her mind had already identified the sounds, their exact location and the source all in the space of three seconds. Police.

_Nothing I need to bother with._ She thought since her power sensors didn't go up at all.

"We've got company." 17 said, never moving his head an inch.

Spoke too soon. She thought with a mental sigh of annoyance, "Maybe I should go say hello."

Opening her door, she looked back and confirmed visually what her ears had told her earlier. Yep. Three standard police hover cars with both sirens and lights at full power. Letting herself fall out of the van, she activated her anti-grav generator one second later and directed her flight towards the lead police car. Accelerating a bit once she was at the halfway mark, it wasn't long before she was where she wanted to be and with barely minimal strength she punched a hole into the front of the vehicle. Pulling it back out, she didn't even bother to watch as the engine she'd damaged burst into flames as she flipped over it but rather directed her attention to the two final pursuers approaching from behind her after she landed. She then executed a move she had once seen on one of Gero's monitors that she'd modified to pick up local TV broadcasts. A double clothesline. Only in this case instead of people she used her superior body to tear the metal frames of the two hover cars apart from front to back. Once they were three feet away from her, smoke and flames began to peak out of the damage she'd made followed by the failure of all anti-gravity systems. End over end they fell until they lost what momentum their engines had given them before her attack and all three came to a screeching halt.

_Well that was over quick._ She thought with disappointment before she took to the air once more and caught up with the van.

With ease she opened the passenger side door and slid back into her seat to resume what she had been doing before the cops had interrupted her: mentally constructing scenarios and strategies to defeat her enemies while also wondering what she would do with her life once her primary objective was achieved.

It was boring at times but it was either that or inane car games.

The former was definitely less annoying than the latter.

&

_**The Ruins of the Red Ribbon Army Headquarters, Thirty Minutes Later, **_

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well at least she didn't start arranging the rubble into lawn sculptures or something._ He thought as he descended to the building that was obviously being used by Chi-Chi.

It had only been three hours since he'd last seen the woman and her husband, Goku, and it couldn't have taken them more than an hour to have gotten there, but already the place looked lived in. There was a clothesline hanging from the building where Goku likely was to what used to be a support beam of some kind and it had wash clothes hanging on it. A mini-barbecue was set near the door and looked like there was some meat cooking there and the smell was making his stomach growl with hunger. It had been hours since he'd last had a good meal but he willed himself to curb the Saiyan impulses, which were telling him to dig in. There probably was barely enough food to last the ten days needed for Goku to get better and, as much as he might like too, he wouldn't scarf it all down just because his body could pack it away like no one's business.

Trunks, Gohan and he touched down by the entrance and walked inside to find Krillin, Yamcha and Chi-Chi all looking at the mini-TV that sat in the corner of the room. What caught his attention though was the fact that all three of them were looking at the screen like they were in some kind of trance or were captivated by some great show. Not that it was all that strange for Krillin and Yamcha but, with the way that Chi-Chi always went on about the importance of a good education, she was the last person he thought would watch TV like this. Walking inside with the others he tried to figure out what precisely was so interesting but unfortunately the television was too small to see or hear much.

"Uh, Krillin?" Gohan asked tentatively wary about distracting the bald wonder from whatever the trio had found so interesting, "What's going on?"

"Gohan, Trunks, Xander, come over here and have a look at what's on the news." Krillin replied urgently as though there was something important being broadcasted.

"What do you mean?" Gohan asked completely bewildered at what could have attracted his father's best friend's attention like this.

_I was never much interested in the news either. _He thought to himself as he recalled his days back in Sunnydale, _It either had nothing to do with me or didn't impress me much after learning about Sunnyhell's nightlife._

Looking at the TV screen he didn't see anything all that impressive, all it was showing was the usual cityscape, but there had to be more to this so he waited. Sounds soon got added to the pictures and he knew then why this broadcast was so important. People were screaming in fear. That could only mean trouble but there were no accompanying explosions or crashes so either the androids were playing with their prey or it wasn't them.

"Oh, the humanity!" Exclaimed the male news anchor as he was brought into the picture, "As you can hear, the city is not deserted after all."

Gunfire was soon added to the mix of screams and cries but he doubted very much that whatever was causing the commotion would be all that impressed by bullets.

"Now I can hear shots!" said the anchor, obviously trying to convey the chaos of the moment with his own excitement, "It sounds like machine gun fire coming from the very core of the city but we can't make out who's doing the shooting!"

The shooting went on for several moments, changing tempo as well as indicating more than one weapon, until all of a sudden all was silent once again. That did not bode well for the few survivors of the city because it likely meant that they were either dead or defeated or both.

"The commotion appears to have calmed down once again." The anchor said and it looked like he would have continued had not something truly terrifying caught his eye.

Whatever it was it was off screen so no one viewing the broadcast knew what it was but it was safe to say it was horrifying enough to scare the man stiff. All they could hear from the TV was the man's fearful exclamations that only increased in volume as the cause of his terror did something off-screen. Then the screen shattered into static white noise and snow screen before the signal was cut off and things went back to the main news building.

"Krillin! Quick! Change it to another channel!" Yamcha ordered looking like he was ready to dive right into the screen with the idea that that would take him to Ginger town.

Baldy did as he was told and eventually they got to a channel that seemed to be coming from the same town but what they saw was not good. The camera was on the ground judging by the angle as well as the positioning of the objects on the screen but what bothered him was the lack of bodies. If the male news anchor and his people, along with the others he'd seen in the background, were killed only a minute ago then there'd be no time for the killed to dispose of the bodies. There weren't even any scorch marks or signs of street damage to indicate a vaporizing level ki blast were used to dispose of them. All that was on the screen was a microphone, a shoe and some pants but no people whatsoever. Gunshots could be heard in the background but they didn't last long and eventually all went unto silence once again.

"It sounds like its over." Krillin said eerily as he was probably thinking the same thing as everyone else.

Something seriously creepy was happening in Ginger Town.

It was a deadly mystery and it was also one that had him wanting to head out to Ginger Town and investigate the crisis. If something like this had happened in an area of Sunnydale, the gang would have gone all out to identify the threat before any more lives could be lost. However he suspected that this threat wouldn't be like any demon or monster he'd ever faced before and it worried him that this might be a bigger problem than even he could comprehend. Mentally he growled at how yet another problem was added on top of the two that they already had: the androids and the bug thing they'd found.

Quietly contemplating what sort of demon could be behind the threat in Ginger Town, he began to go through the list of demons that had similar MOs. He knew that this could be something completely different but there was always the off chance that something he knew could be useful. While he did this he could hear Trunks and Gohan telling the others about what they had found when they'd gone to look into that beaten up Time Capsule Bulma had found. He didn't bother to pay much attention to this because as far as he was concerned it was old news and he'd much rather keep his mind on current events. Fortunately the debriefing didn't take long because he was about ready to head off to Ginger Town to snoop around a bit.

"So it's some kind of creature that's causing all the trouble?" Krillin asked, sounding even more serious than before.

"Yeah. Right. We found its shell near the Time Capsule." Trunks replied sounding like he was only half into the conversation, "Now I've got to go to Ginger Town."

"No!" Yamcha exclaimed taking a step forward but a step short of stopping the kid from the future.

"You can't!" Krilling declared with concern that no doubt came from how freaked out he was about the whole situation.

"Hey! Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Trunks said turning halfway towards them, "After all I am a Super Saiyan and, besides, it's the androids we really have to worry about."

_I wouldn't be too sure about that._ He thought as he went over everything they'd learned so far about Ginger town and the bug thing, _Ignoring a problem just because it isn't as high profile as a couple of androids would be a mistake._

"I'll go with you!" Gohan said volunteering to back the older halfbreed up.

"WHAT!? Oh no you're not!" Chi-Chi bellowed making just about every male in the room cringe, "I think you're forgetting about your father. He's more important than some dumb creature."

"But mom! If Trunks has a fight he might need my help." Gohan pleaded to his mother.

"Don't worry about that, Gohan." He said as he moved to Trunks' side, "I'll be going with him. You stay here and take care of your dad. I'll be Trunks' back up."

"Yes! Let your uncle handle this." Chi-Chi said immediately jumping on the bandwagon that would keep her son where she could keep an eye on him, "He can help Trunks just fine."

"All right. I'll stay." Gohan said finally admitting defeat albeit reluctantly.

Not that he could blame the kid, considering how overbearing and strict Chi-Chi could be. He could remember quite a few times when he visited he cringed when the woman started getting all controlling and bossy. He had also heard many a horror story from the others about how bad she could get when particularly cross or angry and that had been enough to make him spend as little time at the Son home as possible. That had been somewhat difficult seeing as how two years of his training had been with either Goku or Gohan but, fortunately, he timed his sessions for when Chi-Chi was in town.

_Didn't always work, though._ He thought with a barely noticeable grimace, _That woman could make the Devil himself cower in fear._

He listened to the others advise caution and discretion when it came to investigating Ginger Town but the warnings were unnecessary. Trunks came from a time when caution was the word of the day **every** day and that made it unlikely that the kid would doing anything too reckless. Assuming, of course, no one he knew was in trouble because if that turned out to be the case then the idiot would dive in headfirst. He personally blamed Bulma for that part of the teenager because he believed that there was no way that Vegeta would doing anything without at least thinking it out a little bit… unless prick wanted to show off his power or the person he faced got under his skin then it was pretty much going to devolve into a free for all. Okay, so maybe it was pretty much a guarantee that this teenager from the future would go and do something stupid or reckless in Ginger town. All the more reason for him to go along and try to keep things from going completely FUBAR on everyone.

Walking outside with Trunks, they fired up their ki fields and took to the air heading in the general Direction of where Ginger Town was in relation to the abandoned Red Ribbon Army HQ.

He was about three minutes into the trip before his stomach growled with complaint that it hadn't gotten anything to eat.

With great difficulty he ignored it.

&

_**Ginger Town, Twenty-Five Minutes Later, Piccolo's P.O.V**_

_There is an evil presence in this town._ Picollo thought, walking through the town that was completely vacant of life save for him and his… quarry.

He could sense it in the shadows, he could sense it moving, but its precise location was eluding him despite the sharpness of his senses. Nevertheless, he continued his search and used the knowledge he gained from Kami to seek it out for while he could not sense the creature precisely, he had enough to work with to keep it nearby. Walking calmly through the town, he tried to imagine what the inhabitants must have felt when the place first came under siege from the monster. It would have happened quickly and without warning for nothing in the way of news of the threats to have reached the outside world. That implied significant speed, precision and strategy especially since he didn't see any damage to the roads out of town that would imply someone tried to prevent the people from escaping. He knew that if it was him doing this, it would have been an absolute requirement to learn about the city first and use surprise attacks at every opportunity. He wouldn't let the people know where he was at any time, since knowing his position would allow them to evade him more easily. Better to keep them guessing for every second of their panic in order to prevent them from thinking straight and coming up with a thorough plan.

It was as he reached the southern area of the town though that the feeling that he'd attached to the creature spiked in strength and he knew that it was coming for him. He didn't have long to wait before a hideous creature emerged from the shadows of an alley. It was definitely a bug themed foe with segmented organic armor all over its body with only small areas around its joints lacking this protection to allow for movement. It had wings and a tail as well with three toed feet and a head piece that looked like a crown but different in that it was grown out of its head rather than put on.

"At last we meet face to face." He said as he turned to face the beast responsible for the deaths of all but one person in this town.

That one person was hanging limp in the creature's right hand, a balding man of middle years dressed in an expensive suit, who was either unconscious or simply weak from trying to escape this abomination. He waited for it to say something, presuming that it was capable of speech, when a ki signal lit up right in front of him that he'd know anywhere but that shouldn't be coming from this thing. He tried to understand what the hell was going on but it was about then that the killing machine's captive woke up and locked eyes on him.

"Hey! You've gotta help me!" the man pleaded reaching out with one arm towards him, "Please! Help me!"

He could hear the man speaking but his mind was so distracted by what his ki sensing abilities were telling him that he barely paid the guy any attention at all.

'What the--! What am I sensing from this thing!?' Piccolo thought to himself, unable to shake how familiar the ki he was sensing was or who he bet it belonged to.

"Please! I'm begging you!" the captive beseeched as the creature dragged it a step forward, "Please! Please! I am in more than a little pain right now."

This second line of pleading had about as much effect on him as the first one. It wasn't that he didn't understand that the man was in trouble or that he was cold blooded enough that he was indifferent to whether the guy died or not, but rather it was the sheer importance of what he was sensing that kept him from drawing his attention away from the creature in front of him. When he'd come to this town, he'd expected a foe more along the lines of what he and Goku had encounter in their long lives. This, however, was completely different and it left him feeling a little unprepared for what he was staring down at the moment. In the end, though, he knew that he would have to goad this thing into attacking him so that he could get a better idea of what it could do. Fortunately the captive it had provided him with the perfect opening play.

"You would be wise to let him go." He said emphasizing with his eyes what would happen if the man was not freed, "You've done enough already. It's time you picked on someone your own size."

With some surprise he watched as the creature released the man and thought for a moment that perhaps this creature could be reasoned with. That possibility was obliterated when the monster stabbed the bald man who'd claimed to be the wealthiest in town in the back with its tail. It was ruthless! However it was also revolting as he watched the abomination begin to literally suck the organic elements of the man's body into itself through its tail. It happened in a matter of seconds and, in the end, all that was left was the man's clothes and they looked precisely like the other clumps of garments he'd seen in this town. Now he knew precisely what happened to the people of Ginger Town! They'd been devoured by this thing! Every last one of them!

"Now that we've gotten that vermin out of the way, you're next Piccolo." Spoke the creature in a raspy, malevolent voice.

"W-what did you say?" he asked, shocked that this thing would know of him even though they'd never met before **ever**.

Despite his adventures with Goku and the fact that he'd participated in the World Martial Arts tournament, he wasn't that widely known to the world. Those that weren't interested in martial arts or the destruction that usually accompanied his encounters with Goku were completely clueless about him. Yet somehow this insectile fiend knew his name and acted like it knew him. This was not right. He had come into this situation believing that he would be on more or less equal footing with the threat in terms of what one knew about the other. Obviously that was not the case and unless he wanted this to be over with too quickly he'd have to stay on his guard.

A smart move since it was then that the creature began to raise its ki level **exponentially** displacing air and tearing up concrete in every direction. Then with one almighty burst of energy, everything save the buildings around them were destroyed and it looked like the structures around them would crumble with only one good blow. However, what bothered him the most was that he could sense **himself** in this creature, his ki signature, and it was almost as strong as he was from what he could feel. This was **not** what he had been expecting.

"Heheheheh! What's the matter?" The creature asked arrogantly, "You seem afraid, Piccolo."

"No. Far from it in fact." He replied even though beneath the surface he was a little unsettled, "Now tell me how you know that name."

"Well…one might say that we're…brothers." Declared the monster casually despite the power it now had flowing through it.

"What!?" he exclaimed remembering what happened the last time some one strange showed up claiming to be someone's brother.

Naturally this caused the beast to cackle with glee at his discomfort.

"Now, if you think you've finished showing off, I want answers." He said threateningly as he glared at the being before him, "Who are you?"

To this the creature merely looked back at him offering nothing in the way of answers.

"Silly Piccolo! My secrets will not be unlocked so easily." The beast said confidently as though there was nothing that could move him from this position.

"No matter. I'll still destroy you." He said deciding that the direct approach might serve him better than the Q&A was at the moment, "Whoever you are."

"Heheheheh. You're even more amusing that I'd imagined." The killer said with much amusement at the threat it perceived to be so hollow.

"Well, we'll see if you still feel that way after I've beaten you." He said, deciding that now would be the time to see precisely where his limits truly were after fusing with Kami.

"Such a fighter's spirit!" The abomination cackled as it prepared itself to repel whatever feeble attack came its way, "I will enjoy absorbing you, Piccolo."

"You keep using that name. It seems you've mistaken me for someone else." He said bracing himself for the rise in power he was about to get, "So allow me to introduce myself!"

With those words he began to raise his ki exponentially, forcing it to go higher with every second that passed, displacing more air and matter than this insectile foe did before by quite a bit. It was amazing! Every time he thought his power increase would come to a stop, it passed his estimate completely and kept on going strong. It was with a flash of ki that he settled at what he felt was a power level strong enough to defeat the foe in front of him. There was no reason to expose his true maximum to this being, especially since holding something in reserve could prove useful in case the creature had any tricks up its sleeve. Nevertheless, he could feel himself, the air and all things around him vibrating with the power he now held and it made him feel like this fight was already his to win.

"The Piccolo you know is gone!" He declared loud and clear to his foe, "I am the Namek! And as for you? Well…you're history!"

Looking at his enemy he waited, hoping that the creature would be scared enough to make the sloppy first move he could use to get this party started, but instead the being before him began to chuckle in amusement. That wasn't a good sign. It could be a nervous laughter or an attempt at a bluff but somehow it didn't sound quite right for that.

"I'm impressed, Namek! Your power is astounding." The creature said with hunger in its voice, "I am sure you will prove to be a most satisfying meal."

"Don't count on it." He said, knowing that within seconds the battle would be joined.

Of course this meant that it would be him who made the opening move since it was often the case that whoever took the initiative in a fight like this was often the one who emerged victorious. He also knew the perfect way to do it and so began to condense the ki within him in preparation for an attack that would hopefully do some serious damage. With little arcs of energy jumping off his body, he kept a close eye on his adversary on the off chance that the thing before him caught on to what he was doing. It seemed to know more than it should so it wasn't totally beyond the realm of possibility.

"You know, you made one critical mistake. You should've never emptied this city of its population." He said feeling that he was almost ready to go on the offensive.

"Oh and why is that?" it asked with calm curiosity.

"Because as long as there are no innocent bystanders to get in the way I'm free to fight you with the best of my abilities!" He replied letting the arrogant one in front of him know what a mistake he'd made.

"So what's stopping you?" It asked, calling his bluff with contempt in its voice.

"You know…that's a really good question." He said as the pressure of power building within him began to get to him.

It was time to let it out.

Thrusting his left hand out at his foe he watched as cracks in his ability to control the build up of power began to manifest themselves in the form of little spheres of energy being drawn towards the center of his palm. His enemy saw this as well and caused it to place itself into a guarding position that, theoretically, would keep it on its feet as well as let it withstand the power headed its way. However he knew something this thing didn't know.

Some energy attacks you just can't guard against.

With one final cry of strength, he unleashed his attack overwhelming his foe within seconds and pushing it backwards for several city blows while demolishing everything in its path as well as on either side. By the time he was done, a good section of the city had been destroyed and reduced everything to little more than fragile rubble. But he didn't let his guard down despite how some might believe that the bugman had been destroyed. This thing had proven to be one surprise after another and he wasn't about to let another such surprise take the advantage away from him.

It was seconds later that he found his foe as the fool used a ki discharge to blow away some rubble that it had been buried under. With speed that surpassed his previous best, he charged forward, appearing to be aiming for a head-on collision, but just as he saw the monster attempt a punch he evaded it. Looping around, he flew backwards towards it and then spun around in order to gain some extra momentum so he could deliver a thunderous reverse kick to its back. This almost succeeded in knocking it down but it went on all fours to steady itself and so he attempted a follow up kick to finish the job. It was then that the monster showed that it had some speed of its own as it evaded the attack but if it thought that speed was going to save, it the monster was dead wrong. With a burst of speed, it was easy to get behind it and deliver a punch that sent it in the opposite direction it had been heading. Moving with the utmost speed once more he soon arrived at its most likely touchdown point only for it to stop its fall mere feet from him. Before he could make use of its stationary position, it flew high into the air, perhaps to think up a strategy, but that soon its intentions became clear.

In a move that surprised him greatly the bug used his own technique, the Special Beam Cannon, in an attempt to do some damage. Fortunately for him it was a trifle to swat away the blast and send it into the remains of a building to detonate harmlessly a fair distance from him.

"He's good." He muttered as each move the abomination made increased his appraisal of it.

He didn't get much of a chance to say anything else because, in seconds, the thing closed to fighting range and an exchange of blows began. They were fast and furious and it wasn't until he upped his own power level a few notches that he was finally able to surpass the thing enough to deliver a solid punch to the side of its head. It only dazed the creature for a moment though but that was enough to set it up for another attack using a variation on the after image technique. One quick kick later and the creature was buried in rubble again in the middle of the devastation and he used this time to land close by. Like clockwork it didn't take long before it dug itself out but now was the time to see if the freak's tongue had been loosened any.

"I must admit you're a lot stronger than I gave you credit for." He said to start the conversation, "But don't let that go to your head."

"You have yet to see my true strength." It said with a chuckle, "I was not able to gain enough energy in this town to reach my full power."

"So I was right. All the people you consumed, it wasn't just for the fun of it, it was to make their energy your own." He said as his earlier suspicion was proven correct, "Who are you?! What kind of a twisted mind would think to send you here in the time machine?"

"I came here of my own accord. The time machine was much too small for me to fit inside in my present. I was forced to regress myself to my larval stage and encase myself in an egg." It replied with glee at possessing superior information, "Pretty ingenious, wouldn't you agree? Still, you have learned much, Piccolo, however there is so much more for you to discover."

With those words the creature placed its hands in a position he was all too familiar with and it was then that he picked up another ki signature within the monster. He sensed Goku's ki within this abomination. Then began the chant he knew all too well and even though he could see it coming he was amazed at how someone not taught by anyone he knew could perform this technique. Even Goku needed to see Roshi perform the move once before he could even manage a mini version of it and yet he could feel the familiar flow of power that was the Kamehameha wave building within the monster.

"KA-ME-HA-ME-**HAAAAA!**" The creature yelled before unleashing a stream of neon blue energy at him.

Just as the blast was at the halfway point, a blurred form appeared out of nowhere and knocked it off course with one arm. It was soon revealed though that it was the newest member of the Z-warriors, Xander, who had intercepted the attack and was currently glaring at the monster with his cold, green Super Saiyan eyes.

"Sorry if you had a strategy in the works, Piccolo." Xander said before rising to a more at ease stance, "But this guy was driving me nuts with all the different ki signatures he has rolling around inside of him."

&

_**The Remains of Ginger Town, One Minute Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

"So this is where you've been, Mr. Bug." He said looking about the ruins of the town now devoid of all life, "Can't say I'm crazy about the new look though. The whole 'apocalyptic wasteland' look is so 80's!"

"Ah! So the court jester of Saiyans has arrived. Good." The creature said as though the arrival of a fully powered up Super Saiyan didn't bother him, "The fighting with Piccolo was amusing in the beginning but he was starting to bore me. I hope that you will provide better entertainment then he did."

"Well, if you're into pain and entreating death then I promise you all the 'entertainment' you can handle!" He declared and with that charged the creature head on with all the speed he could muster.

Just as he expected, when he got close enough to strike, Mr. Bug performed a haymaker in an effort to knock him back. However, instead of reversing course, he let the knowledge he inherited from Soldier boy on Halloween guide his movements. Ducking under the monster's arm, he quickly got past any effective guard and with both hands delivered a double palm thrust to the creature's chest. Add in a little ki for flavor and the beast was sent tumbling back through several slabs of stone before it dug in its toes bringing its journey to a stop. It was one of the things that he found proved useful every now and again: despite having many interesting styles of combat, they didn't have close quarters combat training like the military back home. There were a few moves that were close but nothing quite matched up to what he recalled and it was those differences that gave him the advantage. It didn't always work, neither Goku nor Vegeta were all that phased by them, but his moves got through often enough that he'd incorporated them into everything else he'd learned on this world. It'd been enough to get a few nods from both Goku and Vegeta but, as usual, they made it clear that their fighting style was better than his.

_Time to prove them wrong!_ He thought before he used a burst of ki enhanced speed to close the distance between him and the monster.

This time, when the creature attempted to use a kick to repel his assault, he ducked under it, grabbed it by the ankle while the leg was fully extended and then delivered a punch aimed at the knee joint. Before the blow could connect, though, the abomination lashed out with its tail, forcing him to lean back in order to avoid getting the point end of its appendage in the eye. This proved to be enough of a distraction for the beast to wrench its leg out of his grasp and then it was he who was on the defensive. Fortunately it wasn't for very long because, soon enough, Piccolo intervened adding his considerable power to the side of good. Between the two of them, they steadily began to gain ground against their single enemy with one of them, always making sure that Mr. Bug didn't get a chance to put some space between it and them. Their good fortune, however, didn't last because in a rare moment of respite the creature performed the multi-form technique, creating three copies of itself for a total of four, including itself.

"Let us see how you fair being attacked two on one." It said before both he and Piccolo were forced to focus on defending themselves rather than attacking their true enemy.

While he soon discovered that the duplicates didn't have the power of the original, two on one was still nothing to brush off. With an extra appendage and knowledge of the techniques used by the Z-warriors, it was like fighting an entire team of trained warriors alone. He was able to get in a few lucky hits here and there but so did the creature and they were strong enough to do some damage. Still, if there was one thing that his time training under Vegeta taught him, it was how to endure the pain and keep on fighting despite his body's complaints. Back and forth it went until he heard Piccolo cry out and when he looked up he saw that the two monsters had grabbed ahold of the Namek with a firm grip on all of his limbs. He was about to break off from his own fight but, all of a sudden, his body was overcome with pain and so severe was it that he was forced to drop to his hands and knees. Willing his mind to ignore his pain, he tried to figure out what precisely was causing him such intense pain and it was then that his sense of touch alerted him to something being wrong with his tail. Turning his head he saw the source of his problems.

One of the duplicates had grabbed onto his tail with both hands and was squeezing it tightly.

It was one of the few ways that a Saiyan could be harmed by someone of lesser strength and, sadly, it appeared that unlike Vegeta his body hadn't evolved to the point where the weakness was no more. Instead he was all too like Goku in that grabbing his tail essentially put him out of the fight until he could find some way to free it. A scream cut through the air and he turned his head with much difficulty towards the source and saw that the creature had pierced the Namek's left arm with its tail. What was most horrifying though was that he could see **something** being sucked out, up the tail and into the thing's body. He didn't want to even think about what that something might be but in the back of his mind he had a pretty good idea. With all the considerable will at his disposal, he tried to fight against the pain in order to free himself but the most he was able to manage was to rise to one knee.

It was then that he heard the sounds of tanks approaching and when he looked he saw a small army of tanks rolling in the direction of the battleground. Apparently the local military had decided to move in after the loss of news coverage of Ginger Town and were planning to take the beast down themselves. The fools. Anything that could survive energy blasts from Piccolo or punches strong enough to topple a building from him had no chance of being destroyed by conventional weapons. Redoubling his efforts, he knew he'd have to intercept the monster's counter assault but for that to happen he had to get free. Punching and kicking her out of the question with his muscles spasming every few seconds with pain making movement difficult. Potent energy blasts were also not possible because they required a certain level of concentration to properly execute them. Add to that the likelihood that the creature would be in an idea position to dodge them and he'd be seriously lucky to score a glancing blow. That left one possibility that might free him and didn't require precise aim in order to execute. He just hoped that the bug didn't see it coming. Rolling onto his back, while being careful not to put any more pressure on his tail, he brought both his hands up to his face and released his ki in the appropriate manner.

"SOLAR FLARE!!"

It wasn't very powerful, nowhere near as bright as it could have been, but it was enough to cause the duplicate creature to rear back and cover its face with its hands… hands that had once been wrapped firmly around his tail.

With his strength rapidly returning, he was quick to put some distance between himself and the two duplicates. He had been fortunate that the other duplicate (since he was fairly sure that the original and another duplicate were holding Piccolo) hadn't been holding onto him as well. If that had been the case the solar flare technique would have been impossible to perform but, now that he was free, it was time to save the idiot brigade and their tanks from themselves. Firing off two generic ki blasts to keep his sparring partners busy, he took to the air to try and get the soldiers to withdraw but, the moment he locked eyes with them, he was given a reason to question this course of action.

They fire **missiles** at him!

On instinct he raised a ki field around himself and, within seconds, explosions were all around him as the projectiles from the tanks slammed into his protective barrier. It wasn't a difficult thing for him to do but it annoyed him that the very people he'd wanted to save were **shooting** at him. He **did NOT** like being shot at! Deciding that trying to reason with these people wasn't going to get him anywhere fast, he chose to go with the usual method for making military people turn tail and run.

Break their toys in the most impressive ways possible.

Zipping down to the lead tank he brought both arms above his head and screamed "XAN **SMASH!!**"

Slamming both fists downwards, he caved in the front of the tank rendering the vehicle useless. Grabbing the barrel of the weapon, he wrenched off the top of the war machine he swung it around like a baseball bat, demolishing the other tanks around him. He took care not to hit any of the soldiers but soon made quick work of the tanks and their missile launchers, turning them into so much scrap metal. Then, just to make sure that the deal was sealed, he fired off a few random ki blasts at the retreating soldiers to ensure that they didn't get any bright ideas about mounting a counterattack. It was as he was about to fire a final shot when out of nowhere he was struck from behind and sent tumbling along the ground. Quickly employing the move he'd been taught by Goku to recover from such an attack he got back to his feet in a flash. His guard on full, he looked back to see what or who had struck him. He was surprised to see it was one of the monster duplicates that he'd freed himself from moments ago but it wasn't the attack so much as the fact he didn't sense it coming that bothered him. It was one of the key things about being able to sense your opponent's ki: it allowed you to detect their blows coming even if you can't see them with your eyes. Vegeta had hammered this skill into him for days and didn't stop until he managed to last a full three hours without taking a single hit.

_I didn't sense a thing leading up to the attack! _He thought with worry as he began employing Soldier boy's methods for watching for an attack, _Is this bug that fast that I don't have time to even sense him before he attacks? Impossible!_

The only possibility he could think of was that somehow the duplicate was hiding his ki signature from him somehow. It wasn't an impossible thing to do but it did get more difficult the more powerful a person was. Put a lit match behind a thick blanket and it's near impossible to see its light but put a bonfire behind the same blanket and it's easy to see. In the case of the duplicate, though, he hadn't sensed either light or heat, thus resulting in him eating dirt for a few moments.

Seeing something coming in fast from the right, he immediately turned in that direction and fired off a ki blast the size of a bowling ball. The second monster duplicate that had chosen him as its sparring partner evaded the attack but at least the move ruined its sneak attack from the side. Too bad it distracted him from the one coming from the front since it would've saved him from a pretty painful strike to the jaw. Thus began round two of the two-on-one battle but, unlike last time, he was taking way more hits than he should. Where before he had been able to match the clones on roughly equal terms, he was now struggling to avoid getting pummelled. None of the movements or strikes they were making showed up on his ki senses, forcing him to rely on the five senses that everyone had. Even if, as he'd learned, the multi-form technique divided the person's strength into a quarter of the whole, these duplicates were still hard to deal with and their ability to mask their ki from him was only making it harder.

In the end it was a two pronged strike to his legs that knocked him off his feet and destroyed his defensive stance. It also caused him great pain that could easily mean broken legs and it made it difficult to think as every impact on the ground jarred his bones. When his momentum played out, he was on his back and he tried to sit up but any movement only moved his bones including those that might be broken. He tried to improvise, to make his ki move him instead of his legs, but just as he was about to get off the ground a three toed foot slammed down on his legs, engulfing him in pain.

"I think that's quite enough for now. Don't you agree?" Asked the duplicate with a smug tone of voice.

It was about then that he heard a cry of pain from above but it wasn't from Piccolo but rather from the monsters holding him, the original and one clone, and soon after the Namek dropping to the ground under his own power. His left arm was completely shrivelled up and hanging limp at his side clearly no longer usable no matter how much will power was gathered to move it.

It was **not** looking good for the home team.


	12. A Terrible Future Past

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the sole property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write only the for the enjoyment of myself and those readers of fanfic who enjoy my works.

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_**High Above the Ruins of Ginger Town, Same Time, Cell's P.O.V**_

_This is quite the delectable meal!_ Cell thought as he continued to drain biological extract from the Namek caught in the clutches of both him and his clone.

Indeed the energy he was gaining from the green alien was easily making up for what he had expended so far and, by the time he was done, he'd be at eighty-five percent of his full potential. He had to chuckle at how well things were working out in his favor even though he had not really planned it out all that far. Aside from draining the living matter of organic beings to increase his own power, he hadn't bothered thinking things through any further. In his present form there were only a select few lesser beings that could even begin to do him harm and he already knew all about them. It was this knowledge that had allowed him to methodically maneuver the Namek into a corner to be caught as well as keep the Saiyan Xander from interfering. While Dr. Gero's files on the newest monkey had been incomplete by the time of his hatching from the incubation tank, they had been more than enough for him to formulate a strategy with. In the end everything had turned out precisely the way he wanted it to with the exception of the fact that Xander's legs were only severely bruised rather than broken as the fool no doubt believed. Indeed, given a Saiyan's natural ability to recover, it would probably just take a few days soaking in some cold water to undo the damage allowing the court jester of Goku's band of fools to return to the battlefield.

He wondered if he should allow that.

While it wouldn't matter one way or the other in the end, it would be bothersome enough to deal with the rest of Goku's friends when the time came. By killing this one now along with Piccolo, he would be ridding himself of two bothersome flies that would mean less bother later allowing him to savor his final form without distractions. Yes! The fewer distractions at that momentous time the better as far as he was concerned. As he felt the depository of bio-extract in the Namek's arm ebb, he prepared to inject even more of his corrosive venom into the alien's body but, in a surprising move, the white form of the pointy eared fool's turban slammed into his face with surprising strength. Pain and disorientation achieved momentary dominance in his mind and, peripherally, he was aware of the Namek managing to free himself from both his captors somehow. As his mind cleared it took him less than a moment to locate his former captive on the ground, grasping his useless, drained arm and breathing quite heavily thanks to his exertions. This alone made up for the pain the fool had caused him moments ago and with nonchalance he commanded the copy of him floating nearby to become a part of him once again. With this done, he lowered himself to the floor below signaling one of the copies guarding Xander to follow its comrade in rejoining Cell prime. One copy would be enough to deal with the Saiyan now that the moron's legs were temporarily out of commission and it would save time once he finished consuming the Namek.

"Heheheh! You may have escaped me for the moment but I am afraid that with only one arm you won't be able to hold me off much longer." He said, taking pleasure in shoving the hopelessness of the hairless fool's predicament, "Face it, Piccolo! Times up."

"Yes…you're right." Piccolo said in agreement.

It was a shock to say the least to hear the proud warrior say those words but upon reflection the fighter before him was a strategy-based fighter. Unlike other fools, the pointy-eared prat wouldn't engage an enemy he didn't have the capacity to beat anymore.

"It's clear that I'm no match for you." Said the Namek with much bitterness and dwindling confidence in his voice, "I can't fight without my arm! I have no choice but to surrender."

_YES! Oh this is __**so**__ sweet!_ He thought as he watched the fighting spirit of his foe diminish laughing the entire time.

"NO! Piccolo! Don't give in!" Yelled Xander with disbelief in his voice.

"Silence!" Declared the copy before stomping down on the young Saiyan's already bruised shins.

"Let him speak! It will do neither him nor the Namek any good." He said with amusement while keeping focus on the defeated foe before him, "At least Piccolo as realised the futility of his efforts but neither of you should feel too bad about this defeat. After all, you will both soon become a part of something far, far greater than either of you could possibly realise."

"What do you mean?" Asked the Namek, seeking elaborating on the statement just spoken.

"You both will be absorbed into **perfection**." He replied, leaving a small clue for the fool to go crazy over.

"Alright but before I submit to you I ask that you honor my last request." Piccolo said with a bit if anxiety present, "Tell me…who are you? Why can I sense Goku's energy in you along with Frieza and Vegeta's?"

It was an interesting request but it made him wonder if there was something he wasn't seeing at the moment. While it did look as though he had this battle won, it caused an itch beneath his metaphorical skin that the Namek would be so insistent on learning about him when soon he would no longer exist. Did the proud warrior have some final trick up his sleeve? No. With Gero's files at his disposal and his own observations during this battle, he felt he had a good grasp of what his weakened foe was capable of and that he was in no danger of serious harm.

"Hahaha! Very well. Since you're literally **dying** to know, I suppose there's no harm in telling you." He said confident that no matter what the lizard like loser was planning he could overcome it, "My name is Cell and I am an android."

"Y-you…you're an android?!" Piccolo asked, obviously not expecting that bit of news.

"I believe I just said that, fool." He said with a moment of irritation, "I am the single greatest achievement of my creator, Dr. Gero."

"I should have known." Piccolo growled as the pieces no doubt were beginning to fall into place.

"You see in his efforts to create a supreme fighting organism, he devised a means by which he could fuse the cells of the worlds greatest fighters into one and then cultivate that cell into a unique, invincible entity." He explained, recalling the information he'd gained from the computer that had monitored and aided in his development, "Unfortunately for the good doctor, he soon realised that project was far too complex to be completed within his lifetime. As such he diverted his attention to more immediate pursuits but only after he had programmed his computer to finish the large task he had begun. The computer worked tirelessly to complete the fusion of cells and data of the mightiest warriors ever to walk the Earth.

"Warriors such as the Saiyan Nappa, the young but powerful Gohan and, of course, cells were gathered from you as well, Piccolo so that your great strength and determination could be harnessed for our purposes. Most notably perhaps were the cells of Goku that were incorporated as well as the mighty Saiyan Prince Vegeta that were incorporated into the design." He said as he indulged in nostalgia for the time being, "Ultimately the cells from these sources as well as others were formed into one and, although the traits of some were chosen to be more dominant than others in the final design, at least some element of each was retained."

"Now I understand. You learned the Kamehamea wave when you inherited Goku's cells." Piccolo stated as a smirk of comprehension appeared on his green face.

"Yes, you are right, however his were not the last cells to be added to the process of my creation. A bit of good fortune occurred when Frieza and his father King Kold came to Earth seeking revenge from Goku's victory on planet Namek. While it was true that Frieza was mostly mechanical at that point, enough organic matter remained for some cell samples to be taken." He said recalling his viewing of the last records in the computer's database, "Trunks' cells would have been taken as well but the computer in charge of my creation had determined that I had already been given sufficient Saiyan traits."

"So tell me this: how did Dr. Gero get the cells?" Piccolo asked as some of his earlier anxiety disappeared, "I don't recall seeing him or anyone suspicious around."

"There is a simple explanation. By now you must have heard of Dr. Gero's tracking device." He replied crossing both arms across his chest, "The tracking device is very small, insect-like, comparable to a common house fly. It's right there. Do you see it?"

Pointing to a spot just above and to the right of his position he waited for the light of recognition to appear in his foe's eyes.

"It's watching us at this very moment waiting for an opportunity to gather more cells." He said knowing full well what Piccolo would do once he located the device, "Quite remarkable, don't you agree? Hahahahaha!"

It took less than a second for the fool to find his prey and just like watching a scene from a play the idiot played his part perfectly when he thrust his one good hand up to unleash a ki blast at the miniscule machine. He didn't even bother to turn around as he heard the mechanical fly disintegrate but instead laughed at the idiot's futile efforts.

"Excellent work, Piccolo!" He said with false praise in his voice, "But once again I am afraid you've only managed to waste your energy. The computer already has the cells it needs for my completion back at the lab."

"You're wrong! We destroyed Dr. Gero's lab and all of his equipment!" Piccolo yelled back in denial.

"Luckily the good doctor had the foresight to place the computer and the equipment necessary for my creation in a bunker **beneath** the lab."

"I see…but it's not too late, though! One of the others is bound to find that computer and destroy it!" Piccolo declared in a foolish attempt to unsettle him.

"Don't be absurd! The computer will work undisturbed for the next twenty-four years, at which time I will be completed." He said, dismissing the Namek's words as the trash they were, "Now then, let's put an end to all this chit-chat."

"Just one more question: Why are you here? Why did you come to this time?" Piccolo asked, grasping at the only thing staving off his death.

"My, you are full of questions! Well I suppose I'll answer this one last question." He said, deciding that he had the time to answer one final inquiry, "It's quite simple, really. You see I cannot realise my full power from the energy of humans alone. I need a very specific source of energy determined by the computer during my development. To be blunt I need the energy of Androids 17 and 18. You see the powers of all the beings that make up my body are powerful but they are as nothing when compared to the strength of the androids. It is this strength that I must possess for myself.

"Unfortunately in the time that I come from, Androids 17 and 18 no longer existed. They had somehow been destroyed by Trunks years before my completion, thus thwarting my dream of achieving my final perfect form." He said remembering the fateful day he was forced to accept that Gero's two androids were gone, "Luckily I discovered that Trunks possessed a time capsule that I decided to 'borrow' for my own purposes. It was easy enough to dispatch the fool but then I was presented with the problem of my size. I was too large to fit inside the capsule so I was forced to regress to my larval form and then, with the press of a button, I was transported to another time in place. It was my hope that somewhere in the past Androids 17 and 18 would still exist so that I could take their power for myself.

"It took a while after my arrival, I could not begin immediately in my larval form, but after four years of hibernation underground I was able to evolve into the powerful form you see before you now." He said taking satisfaction in the look of shock on the Namek's face.

"But why did you choose this particular time period?" Piccolo asked obviously desiring to draw things out as much as possible.

"I didn't. As I said I was required to regress to my larval form in order to fit into the time capsule. I merely pressed a button and the machine took me to where Trunks had programmed it to go." He replied getting a little bored with all this talking.

Still he felt compelled by the parts of him that came from Frieza, King Kold and Vegeta to drop one final bit of information.

"The computer did tell me one more important thing, Namek." He said as the importance of this data filled his voice, "Once I absorb Androids 17 and 18, I will become the most powerful being who has ever lived!"

"But what for? You were already the most powerful being in your time." Piccolo asked with a lack of comprehension.

"This is true but my design was created with the intention of incorporating the power of the other Androids so, without them, I can never become complete." He said making it clear that he would not be satisfied remaining as he was now, "I had to seek them out! It is what I was created to do! Of course it might also be the pieces of Frieza and Vegeta in me that compel me to seek out more and more power to take for myself. Now…are we done talking?"

"Yes…I am ready…you've said more than enough!" Piccolo said with unseen confidence surging to the surface where before there was none.

Then, without delay, the Namek tore off his decimated limb and, with a surge of power, used a power that made him curse himself for not thinking of it sooner. In a surge of flesh and fluids a new arm shot into existence, replacing the old one and once more putting Piccolo into a position where he could fight.

"I just needed a little time and, thanks to you taking, the time to listen to yourself talk I got more than enough for what I needed to regenerate my arm." Piccolo said with a confident smirk on his face, "Now that it's back I'm going to see to it that you never get the chance to become complete and I'm not going to be alone. HAAAH!!"

With a yell and a flash of movement, the copy that had been keeping Xander pinned to the ground was knocked clear and, as if this had all been planned, the jester vanished in a burst of speed only to reappear at the Namek's side. Growling with anger, he realised that he had been strung along by that miserable green alien and, while it looked as though the Saiyan's legs were still not capable of supporting him yet, his ability to fly more than compensated for that hindering factor. Thus things had returned to where they had been in the beginning only this time Piccolo would no longer be so easy to capture and disable. Calling his sole remaining copy back into his body, he took stock of the current situation in order to determine the wisest course of action. He still held the advantage over the two of them in terms of power and mobility and. with Xander partially injured. he could easily use the fool as a distraction against Piccolo. Still. the fighting had gone on longer than he'd intended and it was only a matter of time before another one of Goku's friends decided to show up. Should more than one additional member of their team arrive. then the possibility of his being injured would go up and should all of them appear he might very well be defeated.

That could not be permitted.

"You know Cell, even with the energy you took from me and the condition of Xander's legs, we're still more than enough to take you down." Piccolo said. sounding like nothing would please him more than to beat his foe into the ground, "And don't think I won't pay you back for taking my arm. Maybe I'll take yours?"

"Very cunning. Feigning weakness just long enough to regenerate your arm and using the shock from the event to free your comrade." He said. sounding like he wasn't worried at all, "Heheheheheh! Perhaps my superior mind came from you."

"Don't give me all the credit. The idea for it all came from Kami." Piccolo replied taking on a more relaxed posture.

"Kami? Mmmmm. Ah yes! Kami. So he's the Namek you fused with to get your new power!" He yelled angry that he had not considered the possibility sooner.

"Well now you've got it. Heh. I guess you're not as dumb as you look." Piccolo stated as though his fusing with his other half should have been obvious.

"Actually I think it'd be pretty hard for a **rock** to be as dumb as he looks, Piccolo." Xander said, deciding to join in on the conversation.

_But Kami was the guardian of the Earth._ He thought as he processed this new bit of information, _That means there are no dragonballs to revive people after I've consumed them. Heheheheheh! My how convenient! For me that is._

"Well Namek I'd say you've gone to a great deal of trouble for such a miniscule power increase." He said slowly inching away from his foe.

"I'm afraid you haven't even come close to seeing the depths of my new abilities." Piccolo declared, implying that he hadn't even used half of his maximum power level, "But you will soon enough."

With those words both the Namek and Xander went into fighting stances, looking all too ready to beat him into submission. Too bad for them that he was able to take the high ground with a single leap to the top of a wall that had endured the explosions up until this point in time. Bringing his tail to bear and preparing to use it as a stabbing implement, he prepared to impale the first one of them that dared to charge him head on. However it was then that two new signals appeared in his ki sensing mind and, looking up, he soon identified them as Krillin and Trunks. Watching as the duo descended and took up support positions on either side of the Xander/Piccolo duo, he was forced to consider what this new scenario could mean for him. The bald fool was no threat but with Trunks present that meant that another Super Saiyan was now his enemy and, unlike in the future, this son of Bulma and Trunks might not make the mistake of underestimating him. He had, of course, approached the time capsule in that time with his power suppressed so as not to startle the boy into any…hasty actions. Once close enough, though, he used a single burst of speed to close to within striking distance and with ruthless use of his tail swiftly snapped the fool's neck like a twig. The moron didn't even have time to use the sword he'd drawn before his life was taken from him. Now, here, in the present though the teenager had backup to prevent him from suffering a similar fate.

_No matter. These four are still within my ability to dispatch quickly and without effort. _He thought as he devised a new battle plan to account for the two new arrivals.

"He's freakin' me out!" Krillin stated, already showing signs of realising just how out of his league he truly was, "Is this the guy responsible for wiping out everyone in Ginger town?"

"Yep. And you can add a couple of military morons to the body count while you're at it." Xander said with focused eyes never leaving his foe's location.

"Be careful and stay well clear of that tail of his." Piccolo said, adding his strategic analysis.

"What's up with the energy I'm sensing? It feels like Goku and Tien are here." Krillin said sounding a little more sure of himself now that he saw that Piccolo wasn't too worried.

"I'll explain all of that soon. Right after we destroy this thing!" Piccolo said drawing the newcomers' attention back to where it should be.

_Time to change the presumption they have that they will defeat me._ He thought before saying, "So you really think you can defeat me? Heheheheheh, don't flatter yourselves!"

"Man! He's a freak!" Krillin exclaimed, not liking the appearance of the evil enemy.

"Yeah, well, he's a freak with the power to go toe-to-toe with a Super Saiyan and can perform just about any technique you can name so stay sharp." Xander said, trying to keep everyone's thoughts on what was important.

"Perhaps but with the four of us here he doesn't stand a chance and he knows it." Piccolo said adjusting their position somewhat in the minds of the newbie's.

"Namek! Once I become complete you won't be so cocky." He growled, finally having had enough of the lack of fear the foes in front of him were showing.

"Face it! You're outnumbered and outmatched! You can't win!" Said the Namek, sounding like he was tired of talking about fighting and wanted to get down to it, "Especially if the Kamehameha wave is the best you can do!"

"That is but one of many techniques I know, Namek. I also know how to perform the much vaunted spirit bomb as well." He declared momentarily accessing the files on Goku's first fight with Vegeta, "I'd quite like to see Goku's face when I use it to destroy you all. Is he still around somewhere?"

"You'll see soon enough!" Krillin yelled back no doubt hoping that the news of Earth's greatest defender would unsettle the insect fiend.

_So he's still alive in this time period. _He thought as his plans altered slightly from fight to flight, _I will deal with him later but, for the time being, I think discretion would be the better part of valour. I can sense Vegeta approaching and if he joins these four, then I could be biting off a little more than I can chew fighting with them. It's time to go._

"You must feel honoured. Soon you will be part of the perfect being." He said before rising into the air at a leisurely pace, "But as anxious as you all are I am afraid you will just have to be patient. You see I have a date with a couple of friends and it would be rude of me to make them wait. BUT HERE'S A PARTING GIFT! SOLAR FLARE!!"

With that the light given off by the sun at his back was added to that given off by his ki to produce such a blinding onslaught that not one of them would be able to see anything for several minutes. More than enough time for him to make his getaway and with his ability to mask his ki signature they wouldn't be able to find him unless he wanted them to. Flying off to the side he moved at a swift pace so as to ensure that once the technique ended there would be nothing for their other five senses to track him with. It was so amusing that even with their much vaunted superior numbers they were completely taken off guard by the most rudimentary of the techniques at their disposal. Even the jester Xander who fired off a single ki blast in his general direction was helpless to prevent his escape.

It was good to be perfect.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**The Ruins of Ginger Town, Three Minutes Later, Piccolo's P.O.V**_

_DAMN HIM! DAMN HIM TO HELL!_ Piccolo thought as he fought to get his eyes working again faster so he could hunt down the bastard who harmed them in the first place.

He should have expected this! The monstrosity had already told him that Gero had gathered cells from the strongest fighters on the planet so naturally that would include Tien given how the three eyed man had managed to hold his own against Goku early on in his former rival's life. The only pathetic excuse that he could think of as to why he had overlooked this known fact was that he had allowed himself to become overconfident with the arrival of Trunks and Krillin. He would **not** make that same mistake twice.

"Ah man! I wish I had Master Roshi's sunglasses right about now." Krillin griped as the short warrior tried to recover his eyesight as well.

"Yeah? Well **I** wish I had had a mirror on hand when he pulled that trick out of his ass so I could shine that sunlight right back at him!" Xander growled sounding quite displeased at how things had gone, "Dammit! What a cheesy ass move!!"

"Cheesy but effective! Damn that coward!" He yelled before rising into the air in a vain attempt to find some visual sign of his quarry.

The others soon followed and added their eyes to the visual search for the foe that had so recently blinded them. For what seemed like an hour but, in truth, had only been a few minutes he looked in every conceivable direction both with his eyes as well as his ability to sense ki. Yet no matter how much he focused and no matter how much scrutiny he placed each direction under he could see nothing but empty sky. In the minutes that he and the others had been blinded that foul creature had gotten clean away and was somehow managing to hide his ki signature making that avenue of tracking useless. With every second that passed without any results he grew more infuriated that he hadn't taken the abomination out when he had the chance. Never mind the time when he had been down to one arm he should have gone all out from the beginning and to hell with the unanswered questions! If it wasn't the part of him that was Kami advising him to take the time to learn more about the unnatural creature this threat would have been over with as soon as it was found! Damn that old coot!

"I can't see him anywhere!" Krillin said sounding scared about not being able to see the powerful organism, "What about you guys?"

"I got nada, zero, zilch and a whole lotta bupkiss!" Xander replied sounding a lot like Vegeta on a bad day, "He's gone!"

"We have to find him!" He said as his mind already began to dream up what absorbing Androids 17 and 18 would do to Cell's power level, "Or more innocent people are going to die!"

Dropping back to the ground, his mind continued to review his previous performance against cell and no matter what way he tried to look at the situation it all came down to three words: he had **FAILED**! He'd had the perfect chance to eliminate a threat potentially greater than both of the Androids put together and he let it slip through his fingers. It was inexcusable, INTOLERABLE, but it was also something he could do nothing about!

"GRRRR…I CAN'T STAND IT!" He yelled as he peripherally noticed his power level skyrocketing in response to his ever rising anger, "HOW COULD I HAVE LET HIM ESCAPE!?! I'LL FIND YOU CELL! YOU HEAR ME!?! **I'LL FIND YOU!!**"

Channelling his rage through his ki, it only took a few moments to vent the hindering emotion enough that he could clamp down on it with his willpower clearing his mind for more productive efforts. As a result, his ki aura and power level dropped back down to a more passive level, letting the winds die down and the rocks drop back down to the ground. As wonderful as a good temper tantrum would feel at the moment, he knew that he didn't have the luxury of indulging himself like that. The amount of free time they had now had been cut in half and it was now more important than ever to defeat their foes before things got too hot for them to handle.

Sensing a familiar ki signature, he looked up to see the Vegetable descend from the sky and had to grimace at how unpleasant this conversation was going to be. Interacting with Vegeta was like eating leftovers: better to deal with them now than to let them go rotten and stink up the place later. He could tell that the others weren't any more happy to see the much arrogant Prince of all Saiyans and Xander in particular was trying to look less hurt than he actually was. By his own estimation, the young Saiyan wasn't hurt all that bad and two bags of ice as well as some time off would fix his legs quickly enough. Nevertheless, he could understand why the newest member of their group didn't want to look bad in front of his 'cousin'. Vegeta could not stand weakness, whether it be in himself or in others, and would attack it where ever it existed until it was gone. That meant if he saw that his relative was hurt and didn't think the inflictor of the damage was all that powerful, the prick would not hesitate to speak his mind about how pathetic Goku's brother was. All of this, though, was meaningless since there were more important things to do than go twenty rounds with sole remaining member of the Saiyan royal family.

"Namek! I demand to know what happened here!" Vegeta commanded, looking as though he was willing to use physical force to get the answers he sought.

Deciding it would be best just to humor the fool he decided he would let the arrogant ass know what was going on but stipulated that they would wait for Tien first who was quickly approaching the remains of Ginger town. There was no way he was explaining things more than once. Unfortunately it wasn't more than a few seconds before the prince asked another question: how had he gotten so much stronger? Fortunately Trunks saved him the effort of having to answer and explained how he had fused with his other half to reach a new level of power that would have taken him years to reach the normal way. Still, it had the desired effect of silencing the overconfident fighter until Tien arrived and that was definitely a good thing as far as he was concerned. With the arrival of the last fighter likely to get to the remains of Ginger Town anytime soon, he dove into his debriefing session letting Trunks, Tien, Krillin and Vegeta know precisely what they were up against. If the situation wasn't so dire, he would almost take some pleasure in their increasingly shocked state of minds but since the situation was that serious he kept his mind on task.

"Are you serious?!" Krillin asked rhetorically after hearing how the fight with Cell had progressed to this point.

"You're saying he possesses cells from Kakarot **and** me!" Vegeta said, almost sounding like he was unable to accept this news.

"That's right, **cousin**." Xander said, deciding to pound the facts into his relative's thick skull, "He's also powerful enough that even using the tri-form technique to duplicate himself he was still able to hold his own against me and Piccolo. He's not something a single one of us can handle right now."

"We have two choices: we can either track down and destroy Cell or we can find Androids 17 and 18 in order to obliterate them before they can be absorbed." He said, putting forth the two best plans he had been able to come up with, "I say we go for Cell because with his method of getting stronger it won't be hard for us to track him down. Whatever we do, though, we must do it quickly because if Cell manages to absorb the other two androids there'll be no one on Earth capable of stopping him."

Letting this statement settle he could see that no one was thinking he was exaggerating things at all and indeed he was not. If Cell's powers increased like Goku's did when he first became a Super Saiyan and did so for every android absorbed, then he would truly be unstoppable once he got hold of 17 and 18. While he himself was never one to let a situation get him too discouraged, he had to admit that beating Cell in his complete form would be nearly impossible without some sort of trump card of their own to play. Sadly nothing came to mind and even with Kami's knowledge to browse through the old coot didn't have anything easily obtainable that would improve their chances of success.

"How exactly do we find Cell now anyways?" Trunks asked with growing concern, "If Cell knows that Piccolo can beat him now he'll keep a low profile and suppress his energy signature as much as possible."

"It's worse than that." Xander said sounding slightly worried although he quickly hid this when Vegeta looked at him, "I don't know how easy it was for him to do it but during my fight with his two copies, they were somehow able to completely render themselves invisible to my ki sensing ability. Even with him moving just as fast as I was I didn't pick up so much as a blip from them."

"If that's the case then we better figure something out before he gets his hands on those androids!" Tien said with determination despite his worry over the situation, "If he manages to grab them then I can tell you guys we'll be in **BIG** trouble!"

"Cell isn't just a danger to us, Tien. With the lust for power that he got from Vegeta, Frieza and King Kold, he'll go into outer space to find new sources of power to make himself even stronger." He said, helping the others to see the big picture like he could.

"Big deal! I say let him become complete." Vegeta said looking like he was trying to appear more confident than he probably was in reality, "If Cell destroys the androids then he'll save me the trouble and fighting one battle is much more preferable than fighting four. I don't care how powerful he becomes! I'll still beat him!"

"Stop spewing hot air, Vegetable breath!" Xander growled, apparently not wanting to listen to his cousin's boasting, "It's clear to everyone here that Piccolo is stronger than you and if he's worried about Cell becoming complete, then this 'Perfect Cell' would wipe the universe with your face if we allowed him to do as he pleased!"

"DO NOT QUESTION MY ABILITY, YOU BASTARD CHILD OF A SAIYAN!" Vegeta roared in defiance of his cousin's prediction of how his fight with Perfect Cell would go, "NOT UNLESS YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE HARD WAY JUST HOW POWERFUL I REALLY AM!"

This might have been enough to provoke Xander once upon a time but, thankfully, the young Saiyan had grown up since he first landed in their world and had learned the wisdom of just ignoring Vegeta.

"I do not fear this new challenge! Rather, like a true warrior, I will rise to meet it." Vegeta said as his rising power level began to distort the air around him, "Yes! I am now a Super Saiyan but I won't stop there. No. I will ascend to new heights of power and I'm sure that once he's back on his feet Kakarot will try to do the same."

Not an inaccurate prediction considering how he figured his former enemy would react upon learning about Cell but it seemed to be beyond belief that there even existed a level of power beyond a Super Saiyan. Still, between the two of them they might be able to come up with something that would level the playing field so as he watched the blowhard prince soar into the sky away from them he chose to hope for the best.

Right now it was one of the few rays of hope they had.

"Sit down so I can take a look at those legs of yours, uncle Xander." Trunks said, causing all eyes to turn to him, "I might only have a med-kit capsule on me but it's better than nothing right now."

"Never mind about them, Trunks." Xander said trying to brush off his injured legs as being nothing serious, "They'll heal quick enough on their own."

"Don't be an idiot. I know you won't take the time to go to a hospital or let yourself lay down until they heal so at least let me do what I can." Trunks said with a bit more power in his voice than he used on anyone else.

In a move that proved that Xander was more practical and sensible than his royal cousin the teenage pureblood Saiyan lowered himself to the ground, taking care not to jostle his legs more than necessary. It was one of the few things he was grateful for since the kid and the Vegetable returned from their outer space training session. He had been worried that spending time with Vegeta for over a year might have caused the visitor from another dimension to take on some of the Prick of all Saiyans' less commendable qualities. Instead, while the young man was a little rougher around the edges than when he left, the guy had his pride under better control and had only improved as a fighter. While he had been busy with his own pair of Cells, he had been able to catch glimpses of Xander fighting and, despite how things had turned out, he respected how well Harris had done just the same. Given a few more years to mature as a fighter and he would easily be the equal of Goku or himself in a one-on-one fight.

Watching as Xander pulled up his pant legs, he had to admit that the bruising was pretty bad considering it was done with a single blow. From the young man's ankles up to his knees, the skin was turning a combination of purple as well as yellow that only seemed to grow as time passed. Still, it could have been much worse, the bones beneath the bruises could have been shattered, and might have even put the guy out of the fight entirely. With all their senzu beans having been used up for the time being and Korin unlikely to have a new batch for at least a month, if the bones had been fractured Xander would have been bed ridden until then. Not a good thing, considering that their foes totalled four now with all of them being invisible to ki senses, whether by desire or by design. Cell would be easy to track down given his eating habits and would be easier to defeat then taking on the other three androids all at once. Still easier did not mean their victory was in the bag. Cell had proven that he was more than capable of handling a two on one situation and, if given enough time, he might prove capable of gathering enough strength from the innocent people he consumed to handle more than that. Still, fighting one foe was preferable to fighting three and, unlike Vegeta, he would not let anything get in the way of him making the wisest choice.

"There! It's not much and you'll still need to stay off it for a little while but it should speed the healing up a bit." Trunks said as he began putting away the contents of his med-kit.

"Thanks." Xander said before using his ki to float up off the ground into a standing position.

"Hey Trunks? Are you sure about what we talked about with Xander in the air van?" Krillin asked, sounding like he had something on his mind, "That using your time machine to travel back to destroy Androids 17 and 18 before they wake up won't actually change anything in this timeline."

"Yeah, that's how I think it works." Trunks replied as he got to his feet after putting the med-kit back into its compact capsule form.

"Then it wouldn't make any difference if we went to Gero's lab now and destroyed the still incubating Cell that's located there, right?" Krillin said, walking down his trail of thought, "'Cause it wouldn't get rid of the Cell that's already here."

"Right. It wouldn't get rid of him but at the very least it might prevent that unfinished Cell from ever being fully born into this timeline." Trunks said, realising what Goku's oldest friend was saying.

"Alright then, Trunks and Krillin will go back to Gero's lab and kill the incomplete Cell being made there while Tien and I will start hunting down the fully grown one that's already causing trouble." He said, deciding that the monster growing in the hidden bunker beneath Gero's main lab couldn't be left alone, "If we wind up with nothing to show for our efforts in eight hours, we'll head for Goku's hiding place to see if we can't pick up anything from the TV news broadcasts."

"What about me?" Xander asked, not sounding pleased at the possibility of being left with nothing to do but recover.

"You head back to Goku's hiding spot and rest up. Saiyans might heal up faster than ordinary humans but even their bodies will wear itself out if it has to heal and work at the same time." He replied choosing his words carefully so as to not set the young man off, "Besides which, the others should know precisely what new threat is just in case they have to face it themselves. If Cell's really hunting for 17 and 18 then he might think to hunt down their prey so he can lay a trap for them."

"Fine, but if I'm not back on my feet by the time the real fighting starts I'll head to Korin's place for a Senzu bean." Xander said, sounding like he didn't want to be out of the fight for any longer than absolutely necessary.

Nodding in agreement, all five of them took off towards their respective destinations with each having an important goal to achieve. Hopefully Krillin and Trunks would succeed in destroy the bunker beneath Gero's lab quickly enough to help with the search for Cell. Then, once Xander was better, assuming the shit didn't hit the fan before then, the team would be back at full strength and read for anything the twisted machines had to throw at them.

Regardless of his concerns, that would have to be enough.

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_**Airborne, En Route to the Remains of Dr. Gero's Hidden Lab, One Hour Later, Trunks' P.O.V**_

_It almost happened again._ Trunks thought as he kept part of his mind focused on getting to where wanted to go while the rest focused on what he'd seen in Ginger Town.

Contrary to what one might think, it wasn't the devastation of the town or the sight of the monster Cell that had the dominant position in his mind but rather Xander's banged up legs. While nowhere near as bad as that night, it still served to remind him of that horrible event that forced his mentor Gohan to continue fighting the Androids alone. He could still remember how his mother had grown increasingly worried as the hours passed by without any word from either Uncle Xander or Gohan since the time they'd left to stop the latest rampage perpetrated by those mechanical monstrosities. While she hadn't outright opposed their efforts to combat Dr. Gero's creations, he'd known even with his young mind that she thought it was foolish of them to fight a battle they couldn't win. Off and on since the Androids had first appeared, both Gohan and Uncle Xander had gone after them, to avenge the deaths of their comrades, but each time they had failed to destroy the machines and barely gotten out of the encounter in one piece. He had seen them a few times, hobbling in through the doors of the barely standing Capsule Corps HQ, but given how his mother behaved they had probably come twice as many times as he had been aware of at the time. Each time that he could recall Bulma had yelled at them for an hour or more, calling them fools and death seekers, before finally calming down enough to focus on patching them back together. He knew that she understood why the two of them felt compelled to stand up to the Androids and try to bring them down but he had known even then how difficult the task would be.

He could still remember the fateful night though and he promised himself for what had to have been the fiftieth time since he'd seen his uncle floating in all his Super Saiyan glory.

He promised he would not permit those calculating killers to take Xander's legs from him again.

No chance in hell!

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&FLASHBACK BEGINS&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**Ten Years After the Arrival of the Androids, Bunker Beneath Capsule Corps HQ, 1:15a.m **_

_**Trunks' P.O.V**_

"They'll be alright, Mom. You'll see! They'll come back and tell us all about how they turned those androids into scrap metal!" Ten Year Old Trunks said, watching his mother pace back and forth with worry.

"I hope you're right, Trunks." Bulma said with a flicker of hope in her voice, "I hope to whatever god is listening that you're right."

Taking a sip from his treat of the week, a can of pop from their supplies, he did his best to not let his mother realise that he was just as worried about the two warriors as she was. It had been five hours since the two remaining members of the Z Team had gone off to stop the Androids, Gohan to Ginger Town and Uncle Xander to Nicky Town, and they hadn't heard a thing since. At his mother's insistence, both of the Saiyan warriors had been forced to take communicators with them no matter where they went with strict orders to report in when they arrived at their destination and when they were coming back. It was partially for safety's sake and partially because it would ease the worrying of those left behind to await their return and, while there had been a few times Gohan and Xander hadn't followed these orders, they always suffered a lecture for it afterwards. Such lectures reduced the number of times they forgot to check in but they didn't eliminate them outright and it had become a bit of fun for him to needle both of them about getting a lecture from his mother. However, with this apparent lapse in following Briefs established procedure, he began to worry that he might never get the chance to needle his uncle about being told off by someone weaker than himself again.

"That's it! I'm going to check the radio broadcasts again to see if anyone's learned anything!" Mom said before storming out of the room and heading to the most technologically advanced room in the bunker.

Her laboratory.

While half of the equipment there no longer worked, it did contain an advanced radio system that allowed his mother to monitor radio broadcasts from all over the world and analyse them. It was part of a service that Capsule Corp provided given the current crisis with the Androids, along with what medical and food relief they could manage. With his mother holding the patent on the mass reduction and compacting process and being one of maybe a handful of people who understood how it worked from beginning to end, she had several jerks under her thumb as well as a few people in her debt. By the time he'd made it to the bottom of the stairs and into the lab, his mother was already operating the radio system homing in on any transmissions coming from either Ginger Town or Nicky Town. For the next half hour broadcasts of terrified citizens and a few people trying to be field reporters came over the speakers hooked into the system. He took some solace in the fact that if there were still explosions and signs of fighting going on than it meant there was a good chance that both Gohan and Uncle Xander were still alive. However, as time went by, the number of individual broadcasts began to wind down until the only person left was some old man who claimed to be watching Ginger Town using a fancy telescope.

"This is Green One! It looks like she's finally leaving." Said Mr. Green the relief in his voice coming through crystal clear, "Yeah…yeah…she's flyin' off! Watchtowers! Keep your eyes peeled and let the rest of us know when she passes ya!"

The watchtower system was something that the rescue crews had come up with after the first two years of entering cities ravaged by the Androids. Every major city and town on the planet had camouflaged structures set out in lines stretching north, south, east and west with about a mile between each one for fifteen miles. Using this system of structures, they monitored the Androids and once the mechanical monsters went by the final structure the rescue crews felt it was safe to move in. It wasn't perfect, there had been a few times when those abominations pretended to leave only to return, but it kept the death toll down and the number of people trained in medicine up. Listening with his mother, he heard as the watchtowers to the north of Ginger Town sounded off right up until the fifth structure before something ominous happened.

"I've lost her! Repeat! I've lost her." Came the voice of a young man from the sixth watchtower, "I could see her approaching then she just blurred and vanished! Do you think they caught on to the Watchtower system?"

"Negative. We've been doing this the same way for seven years and this is the first time this has happened." Replied a gruff voice that screamed command authority, "Stick to procedure folks! Watchtowers keep your eyes open and sharp. Until she's spotted by one of the fifteenth Watchtowers no one move so much as an inch out of place!"

While neither he nor his mother wanted to hear those words, preferring to hear that the rescue squads were moving out into Ginger Town, they understood why the rescue squads were being careful. Minutes went by without any confirmation by the other watchtowers that they'd spotted the female android at all and when almost an hour had passed without anything he could tell that Bulma had had enough. She grabbed the microphone hooked into the radio system and boosted the power on their transceiver to its maximum to make sure that the transmission got through.

"It's been an hour. You should go in." She said, sounding as calm as can be even though the look in her eyes implied otherwise.

"Who is this?! Get off the channel!" growled the commander of the Ginger Town rescue units.

"Like hell I will! This is **the** Bulma Briefs, C.E.O of Capsule Corps, and the one that's supply you snails with your med-kits and vehicles." Said his mother in a tone he knew he didn't want directed at him anytime soon, "Now the Bitch Bot has been gone for an hour so I don't think she's coming back anytime soon. If you wait any longer to make sure you're going to lose people you could've saved by going in right now. Do you understand me?"

"Look **Miss Briefs**, if that's who you really are, I will admit that after an hour of no contact with the enemy the odds do favour Android 18 being gone from the region." Mr. Commander said, sounding quite sceptical of who he was speaking to, "However, I am not about to risk the lives of the people under my command on the same so of some woman who may or may not be Bulma Briefs of Capsule Corps. Now **get OFF** this channel NOW!"

"Now you listen to me and you listen **GOOD!**" Bulma said, sounding like she usually did after a **really** long night without **any** coffee to keep her sane, "Either you send in your rescue teams right **FUCKING** now or I use my Capsule Corps HQ override codes on every piece of equipment you have causing it to either cease functioning or fry itself leaving you with nothing. Do I make myself **perfectly** clear?"

Seconds ticked by, each one reaching his ears thanks to the old style clock in the room, and he wondered if the commander on the other side of the radio was really stupid enough to defy his Mom a second time.

"All rescue units move out! Begin search and rescue procedures now! MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!" Mr. Commander yelled into his radio which carried his voice to all tuned into the correct channel, "They'll be in Ginger Town proper within ten minutes, Ms. Briefs, and will start looking for survivors one minute later. I trust this satisfies you?"

"Why yes it does, Commander. In fact I would be willing to forget your earlier **rudeness** if you would be so kind as to keep me updated on any survivors you find." Replied his mother in a false happy tone of voice that fooled no one, "After all, if my brother-in-law Xander Harris were to be found, I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate to let me know. Right?"

Fortunately for the Commander he was knowledgeable enough to know who Xander Harris was and this bit of data was all he probably needed to confirm that he was talking to the C.E.O of Capsule Corps.

"Yes **M'AM!** We'll keep a sharp look out for Mr. Harris and notify you the minute we find anything!" Mr. Commander replied, sounding like he was talking to a **vastly** superior officer, "I'll even pass the word along to other rescue teams in the region that **the** Bulma Briefs wants to be kept informed of the situation."

"You do that. Bulma Briefs, over and OUT!" Bulma said before ending her transmission so as to let the commander do his job.

Watching his mother sag into her chair, he realised that she was a great deal more shook up than he'd originally thought and keeping it together while speaking to the commander had taken quite a bit out of her. Going over to the mini-fridge by the wall of the lab, he pulled out one of his mother's favourite drinks and walked it over to her.

"Thanks, Trunks." She said as he passed it to her.

Letting her pop the lid off and take a long swig of the stuff, he waited to see what she would say or do next.

"All we can so now is wait and hope that G.I. JERK doesn't decide to piss me off again." His mother said before taking a small sip of her drink, "Still, we should probably get some of the med-capsules containing some of the pricier equipment ready for transport. If those two aren't back yet then that means they must really be hurt and if that's the case then the second they're in the clear I'm going to **KILL** both of them for worrying me half to death!! C'mon!"

With that he followed his mother to get the medical stuff ready to be taken to Ginger Town and probably Nicky Town as well. With his mother having lit a fire under the Ginger Town commander's butt then odds were that the commander of Nicky Town had probably heard the entire thing. If that person had any sense then he or she wouldn't need to be yelled at by his Mom to get the lead out and would be heading in to where Gohan was. He wanted to believe that both of them would be alright and that the only reason why they hadn't called was because their communications gear had been damaged but some part of him knew that that wasn't the case.

That part of him knew something bad had happened.

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Pushing the thoughts of how that night had descended into a nightmare aside, he looked about and realised that they had arrived at what was left of Gero's hidden lab. Descending to the ground with Krillin, they looked about the rocky remains of the lab with various bits of technology sticking out here and there. Kicking rocks and debris away at random, they tried to find the entrance to the underground bunker but at the rate they were going it was going to take hours to clear everything out this way.

"It's **cold!**" Krillin said shivering as a particularly chill wind blew by him, "H-hey Trunks! How do you suggest we go about finding the entrance to the bunker underneath all this rubble?"

Looking around he knew that physically moving the rubble and debris would take to long. That left only one option: ki blasts. It wasn't an option he was overly fond of since it might just make finding what they were after that much harder but he couldn't think of any other likeable option.

"Krillin? I think you better stand back." He replied before he began to execute controlled blasts of ki energy to obliterate the stuff that was getting in the way of finding the entrance to the bunker.

It took a while, all of ten minutes or so, but eventually they managed to clear away enough of the junk that they could now clearly see what had been the floor of Gero's lab before he and Uncle Xander had blown everything up. Looking around and, using his memory of how the laboratory had looked, he tried to figure out where would be the best spot for that twisted genius to put a staircase or a ladder. With twisted metal here and there he had to be careful not to see something that wasn't really there but thankfully his years of helping his Mom scavenge for parts in demolished cities helped quite a bit.

As he turned his head he spotted what looked like a hole in the ground and, unless he was mistaken, the twisted top of a ladder was poking up out of it. Moving in closer to confirm what he thought he saw, he felt his doubt slip away with every step he took as his eyes found more and more evidence to support his theory about what he was looking at. When he finally got to the hole and looked down it, he confirmed that it was definitely a way down but whether or not it went to Gero's bunker where the Cell of this timeline was being made, he didn't know.

"Krillin!" he said to get his partner for this mission to come over to his location.

"Huh? What? You find something?" Krillin asked as he began to walk over.

"I think this is it." He replied looking down the hole for any additional evidence to prove his theory, "Take a look."

"You sure?" Krillin asked as he reached the hole and looked at it, "Well what do ya know! That's it."

"C'mon! Let's check it out." He said before they both leapt into the hole in the ground and used their ki to control their rate of descent.

It took them no time at all to reach the bottom but with it being pitch black at the bottom they had to use their other senses in order to keep from walking into any walls or something. Minutes later they found what looked to be a metal door much like the one that had been at the main entrance of the lab prior to its destruction but unlike that one this one wasn't locked. Pushing it open, the first thing they saw was a large, sophisticated, computer in the center of the room and instantly he knew what it must be. It had to be Gero's master computer, the one responsible for ensuring the success of Gero's Cell project, still working tirelessly to fulfill its programming.

"Woah! Jackpot!" Krillin said letting all know that he saw the large machine as well.

Feeling along the wall for some kind of light switch, he didn't have all that far to go and, with the power of his fingers alone, he flicked it, causing the room to be completely illuminated by the lights overhead. With this done he could see the entire room clear as day and the computer that had once only been a collection of reflective surfaces in his eyes was now fully defined. Walking towards the key piece of Gero's efforts, his mind couldn't help wonder how different things might have been if the information in this computer had never been collected.

"This must be Dr. Gero's master computer." He said more because he wanted to rather than any special need to.

"This thing is the brains behind the Androids and Cell?" Krillin asked almost unwilling to believe that something so unimpressive to his eyes could be capable of such a thing, "Trunks! Let's destroy it! It's responsible for all this mess!"

However before he could reply to the short warrior, a glass cylinder filled with a green liquid that was located to the left of the computer caught his eye. Walking over to it he tried to figure out what its purpose could be and what Gero had done with it all those years the madman spent planning Goku's destruction. Looking closely, he soon spotted **something** floating in the center of the mass of water but it was so small and weird looking that he couldn't identify it.

"Look! There's something inside of this thing." He said racking his mind to try and define the thing floating in front of him.

"What?" Krillin asked reaching his side and looking at the glass cylinder.

In the end, after much contemplation (okay, not all that much), he could only come to one conclusion about what the organic mass in the cylinder could be.

"This must be Cell still in his larval form!" he said remembering what this little thing would grow up to be.

"Wow! That thing is made up of cells from all of the greatest fighters of the world!" Krillin said, sounding both amazed and disgusted by what the mass of tissue represented, "It has Goku's cells and even some of mine! Eww! Gross!"

"Definitely! Especially since we know what this will become." He said as he tried to imagine how this mass could become the monster he'd seen earlier, "Eventually this Larvae will outgrow its tank. After that it's not long before it sheds its skin in some sort of a bizarre metamorphosis. Then it will continue to grow into that evil monster we saw earlier called Cell! All because this computer is programmed to carry out Dr. Gero's master plan."

"C'mon! Why don't we just blast that thing and the lab too!" Krillin said, getting into the proper stance to fire off moderate level ki blasts.

It was a tempting proposal, to obliterate the most prized project of the madman that was responsible for turning his world into a apocalyptic wasteland, but a stray thought stopped him in his tracks.

"NO! Stop. Wait a minute, Krillin." He said putting out a hand to prevent his partner from firing anything off yet.

If this truly was part of Gero's hidden compound then there was a chance than there was a chance that some of the 'good' doctor's notes were also here. There might even be some sort of back up database or something that could contain everything they ever wanted to know about the Androids and Cell. He knew it was probably just wishful thinking on his part, given how paranoid the former Red Ribbon scientist had been, but it was just too important to pass up this opportunity. Looking about he soon spotted what looked to be a design table with sheets of paper of various sizes spread all over it. To his eye sit looked like someone had just been here, there was even a cold cup of coffee on it, rather than being vacant for who knew how long. Walking over to it, he immediately began to apply what he knew of science and robotics, the results of long hours with his mother, who was thankfully half the study monger Chi-Chi had been, to try and decipher what was written down on the papers in front of him. As more and more of the information on the largest sheet of paper became comprehensible to him he almost felt at laughing at how the world's luck had turned around.

"I can't believe it! It's all here!" He said as he went over every scribbled sentence or word to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, "The design schematics for Android 17 are all here!"

"Android 17? I don't mind telling you, Trunks, that that thing scares me!" Krillin said sounding genuinely wierded out, "It's those eyes of his, ya know. There's something about them that's just…creepy!"

"Maybe but this could be our lucky break! By studying this we might be able to determine Android 17's weak spot!" he said as his hopes for both this world and his own went up.

"Great! Looks like things are looking up!" Krilling exclaimed happily at the fact that something GOOD had actually happened to them for once, "Now that we got something out of the place, what do you say about blowing this bunker straight to hell?"

Rolling the plans for Android 17 and putting them into a nearby cardboard tube, he turned to Krillin and said "Yeah. Let's do that."

With those words energy blasts aplenty were fired in almost every direction save the direction of the tunnel that was their escape route with the attacks coming from both him as well as Krillin. Amidst the destruction of laboratory equipment and other assorted pieces of property that had belonged to the late Dr. Gero, he couldn't help but feel a measure of satisfaction about what he was doing. While it wouldn't be as satisfying as bringing down the Androids and Cell it wasn't a bad substitute and would hold him over until he got the revenge he really wanted. With a final series of blasts culminating in a team effort with Krillin, everything of value in the lab had been destroyed with secondary explosions being set off in all directions.

"We better get out of here!" He yelled over the explosions to make sure that he was heard, "Sounds like the entire place is coming down!"

"Right! Let's get out of here!" Krillin said before bolting for the door they'd used minutes before.

Running right behind the bald warrior, it was a near thing for them to make it down the tunnel and up the whole to the surface with a cloud of fire hot on their tail but they made it. Looking down from about a hundred feet up in the air he smiled at the sight of smoke billowing up from the hole that led to Gero's underground bunker.

"Wooohhh! Nice!" he crowed with satisfaction as the good fortune they'd experienced had left him with a little adrenaline rush.

"Yeah! What a BLAST!" Krillin said before raising both hands above his head and gathering power for one final shot, "Now for the **grand FINALE!**"

With a two handed serve reminiscent of a soccer player throwing a ball into play, the first friend of Goku through his ki sphere down the hole, causing a massive explosion seconds later. While not as impressive as what a Super Saiyan could do, it was still miles above what a demolition team armed with conventional explosives could accomplish. Deciding to take the lead this time he flew in the direction of Capsule Corp so they could get the plans for Android 17 to his mother. While he might not be a slouch at mechanical things thanks to his mother's mentoring, he would just her judgment over his any day of the week. At the thought of his mother though his brain drifted over to the last time he saw his father Vegeta and the promise the man had made to find a way to surpass the level of Super Saiyan. While he personally could not comprehend how it could be possible to surpass the legendary state of the Saiyan people, he knew that if anyone could pull it off it'd be his Dad. With that in mind though a desire all his own began to manifest, a desire to be accepted by his father, and he knew that there was only one thing he could do. He'd have to pass off the plans to Krillin and then go in search of his father. Maybe if he trained alongside of his father and managed to surpass the level of Super Saiyan along with the proud Prince of all Saiyans then maybe his father would let him fight by his side as a respected comrade. He knew it was a long shot given how much influence the pureblooded Saiyan's ego had over his decisions but he had to at least give it a shot.

He'd never forgive himself if he passed up the one chance he had for gaining his father's acceptance and respect.

With that in mind, he turned to Krillin and, with only a little remorse, opened his mouth to tell the more experienced warrior to take the plans to Bulma instead.

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	13. Something on the Brain

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the sole property of their creators and associated companies. I am making no money off of this whatsoever. I write purely for my own enjoyment as well as for those readers who like reading my work.

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_**The Ruins of the Red Ribbon Army Primary HQ, One Day Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Xander! Don't even think of getting out of that chair!" Chi-Chi bellowed from where she was working in her makeshift kitchen.

The impressive part was that there was a concrete wall between the kitchen and the room he was in, so how she had known he was trying to stealthily get out of the leather chair she'd put him in was a mystery. Nevertheless, he did as she asked and eased himself back into the piece of furniture and, once again, put both feet up onto the crate that was being used as an improvised footstool. Carefully setting down a sack of ice onto his legs, he greatly hoped that his injuries would heal themselves far quicker than was normal. While he wasn't quite as bad as Vegeta or Goku, he was still a Saiyan and sitting on the sidelines when his strength was needed elsewhere was slowly driving him nuts. He couldn't even do basic training exercises without that frying pan wielding woman coming down on him like a ton of bricks and cowing him into obeying. So instead he was stuck watching the portable TV whose picture was terrible due to the region of the world they were in and how far it was from the broadcast antennas. Personally he figured that the Red Ribbon people probably did this on purpose to eliminate the possibility that TV stations might intercept or overhear their top secret transmissions. Still, the images and sounds coming from the television weren't completely impossible to make out so he did his best to put up with the slightly garbled audio and the choppy video. Most of the broadcasts, though, made it difficult for him to stay in his seat since most of them had to do with the androids running amuck or Cell draining another town dry of its people. Both his lingering White Knight Complex and his Saiyan pride were yelling at him to go after Cell and pound the oversized cockroach into the ground but his ability to reason kept him from doing so. He knew that even charged up as a Super Saiyan he didn't stand a chance against either the android trio or Cell and that going after them would be suicide. Didn't change the fact that his insufficient strength pissed him off, though.

_ARGH! Let's see if something more entertaining is on._ He thought as he began to turn the dial on the TV to find something not related to the current crisis.

Sports was on one channel but since he'd spent most of the past three years training, he wasn't exactly up to date on the teams or what the rules were. There were some teen shows but they seemed to just be more mature versions of those Power Ranger knock off shows that Japan seemed to put out by the dozen every year. Eventually he settled on what looked like a sci-fi show that actually sported some decent actors and excellent special effects. Relaxing and enjoying the show, he found that the characters were well developed and not just thrown together simply for their good looks but of course that wasn't to say that some of them weren't hot looking. There was even this blonde teenage girl who was apparently the chief nurse for the base that was the center of the show's action that he could definitely see himself making a play for if he had the time. Her long, lithe legs, the waist that was just the right size and chest that, while not non-existent, was also not so large that even an idiot could tell why she'd been hired. It had always been his opinion that the right breast size for him was the size that was just barely more than he could fit in his hands if he stretched his fingers out as far as they could go. He wasn't quite sure just what cup size that would be, his opinion was that the blonde actress on the screen was probably just a bit smaller than his preferred size. Not by much and she wore leather well but it just wasn't quite right. For one thing he'd prefer her hair to be just shy of shoulder length and definitely straighter, like a waterfall coming down from the top of her head. Also, while leather-clad ladies might look good and, under certain circumstances, great, he was a more practical person at heart and that was reflected in his taste in clothes. He'd want something a little more functional rather than something way too focused on being current as far as the latest fashion trends were concerned. Still, if she could throw a little style into her duds it'd be a definite plus and if her confidence could match her sense of style, then she'd be one tough lady. Then, of course, he'd have to insist on the girl being somewhat skilled at combat or at least possess the potential to become strong with the right training. It was then though, unbidden by his conscious mind, that an image floated to the surface in response to his desired qualities in a girlfriend.

An image of the blonde android that had laid a whopper of a kiss on him when they last met.

_WHAT THE FUCK!?!_ He thought at the top of his lungs as he wondered what sorted of twisted mind he had to have to pair the phrase 'ideal girlfriend' with that bitch of a killing machine.

It was ridiculous to think that he would ever consider even socializing with the blonde bombshell, much less try to go out on a date with her. Android 18 was a killing machine, an inhuman monster that terrorized people for fun, and she was way too in keeping with the sort of girlfriend he was trying to get away from dating. He'd more than learned his lesson since he learned of the creepy side of Sunnydale that if a girl showed interest in him or he showed an interest in her, that it was a solid reason to be suspicious. After all, there was Incan mummy girl, preying mantis lady and a few others that not even the gang knew about. While that wasn't enough to scare him off girls completely, it did successfully pound into his head the need to be careful when he met a good looking girl. He knew enough about hacking from all the times he'd seen Willow do it that he could get into the city records easy enough and that along with some careful asking around usually was enough to filter out the weird ones. So why was his mind suddenly thrusting that glorified toaster oven of a young woman in his face when there was no chance in hell of the two of them getting together or something. For one thing, the machine seemed more than a little carefree when it came to damage and devastation making it clear she didn't even contemplate how her actions would affect the innocent people. She was all about her mission to kill Goku and he seriously doubted that she possessed the ability to throw that commandment aside even if she desired to do so. If Gero was any kind of roboticist, he would have had to hardwire certain programming to his creations to make sure that they didn't deviate from his vision of the future. Why did they wind up destroying him? Most likely they found some way to manipulate their primary programming so that it became necessary to terminate their creator in order to fulfill their primary function.

Their primary function was obviously to kill Goku by whatever means necessary.

He could see how that one commandment could be twisted into a need to remove Gero from the playing field. They could probably justifiably say that the android-ized doctor's lingering humanity would only hinder them from achieving their objective because the lump of flesh could easily be distracted using his emotions. Therefore, in order to maximize the chances of them killing Goku, killing their creator was a must and so they had been able to override whatever 'do not kill or disobey your creator' programming that existed inside of them. However, if their obsession with killing Goku was any hint, they either couldn't find a way to override their objective programming or simply didn't want to. Therefore he very much doubted he could come up with a convincing enough argument to get them to abandon their assassination and destructive ways. That meant that Android 18 was firmly in the enemy column and he doubted very much if they could date with the whole 'do not talk or bring up work' rule in place. Then, of course, there was the fact that he would most certainly have issues with dating someone who killed for fun so, logically, he knew that he and the femme 'bot could be nothing but enemies. Logic and reason, however, rarely played a part when it came to who you fell in love with or who your heart set itself on. Thus it was frustratingly predictable that no matter how hard he tried to banish any lusty feelings for the female android because, while his mind had rejected the idea, his heart refused to let go. It just couldn't stop dreaming up all the different ways that they could spend time together with a few of those possibilities being distinctly XXX rated and one wondering if he wasn't sub-coconsciously interested in S&M.

_I do __**not**__ want to think too much about that!_ He thought firmly as he started repressing like crazy.

…Although he did have to admit that Android 18 did look sort of hot in that two piece dominatrix outfit, riding crop included …

_NonononononononononononoNO! No lustful thoughts of the inhuman killing machine!_ He thought shaking his head with authority to banish the nasty images and thoughts from his mindscape.

Changing the channel to something a little different, something a little less libido revving, he managed to find what looked like a televised poker game. Now that was distinctly more manly and completely lacking in the sex appeal that would bring about the NC-17 images of that femme fatale, thus keeping him from employing the age old practice of hitting his head on the nearest hard surface. After all, pretty much all the poker players were guys whose only redeeming feature was the fact that they could play cards and win more often then they would lose. Not a single sexy woman to be had.

Of course it was then that a break in the game popped up and like some sort of boxing match a woman in a one-piece bathing suit with high heels on her feet walked around the playing table holding up a sign. It wasn't exactly a 'round 1' sign or anything like that, but rather it displayed the current score as well as the standings of each contestant. Needless to say she was full-figured and easy on the eyes so, naturally, when he saw her his mind supplied an image of how Android 18 would look dressed the same way.

_Oh, you're in the lead, Xander! Are you ready for the __**bonus**__ round you __**big**__ stud, you?_ Said the Android 18 in his head before winking at him.

Groaning in disbelief, he had to wonder whether or not there really was some sort of curse that kept drawing him to strange women and the bizarre females to him. After all he was sure that there was some law of averages or probability that said he had to eventually meet a normal girl who wasn't strange in the least and that would be perfect for him. Yet, for some unidentifiable reason, all the normal girls either reject him immediately or he didn't notice their affections until it was too late to do anything about it. Truly it was something that had him convinced that the universe was out to get him somehow. It was definitely something he'd have to consider asking the Eternal Dragon to do something about once this whole mess with Cell and the androids was dealt with. 'I wish that I would no longer attract only the most bizarre and/or homicidal females in existence' pretty much covered what he wanted done. Still, knowing his luck, he'd probably make the wish then find out that the Eternal Dragon couldn't grant the wish because it was something that was beyond Kami's powers or something. It was then, though, that he recalled the fact that Kami had recently fused with Piccolo to face off against Cell so there was no telling how that would affect the dragonballs. They could be gone for all he knew!

_It figures!_ He thought with a growl, _Just when I find a way to change my luck for the better, it gets sacrificed for world saving purposes._

Switching the TV off, he decided that the best thing he could do right now was try to get some sleep so his body could focus his body's energy on healing the bruises on his legs. The chair was comfy after all, probably belonged to a Red Ribbon bigwig, and with a little luck without any visual stimulus he wouldn't have any dreams about **her**.

…Damn it… he just jinxed himself.

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_**One Day Later, The Forests Near Goku's Home, Android 18's P.O.V**_

_Woohoo! This is such fun! I can't think of a single thing that's better than this. _She thought as her cybernetic sibling drove in between the trees towards the co-ordinates of the Son home, _Oh wait I can: Gero testing each and every single one of my nerve circuit connections while I'm still awake would be better than this!_

Yet again, despite the clear path she had blasted for the van, 17 had again decided it would be more fun to go down the most bumpy and unused parts of the forest he could find. Then, of course, there were the few times when they had come to a cliff or a large lake that forced them to backtrack the way they came before they found the right route to take. In short they were easily taking three times the amount of time they would have if they if they had either taken the official roads or had simply flown to the Son home. She had already tried various arguments to try and persuade her brother to do things her way but the idiot was determined to 'have fun' as much as possible, no matter how bored the whole situation made her. She looked back at 16 and contemplated asking him just how far they really were from the Son home but decided that that would be useless. The large android rarely said more than two words and inevitably kept his answers as short as possible so all she'd get for her inquiry would probably be 'not far now' like before. In the end she decided that if she wanted to get a rest from this 'fun' she would have to take a short nap and hopefully by the time she woke up they'd be there.

"I'm going to sleep for a while." She told her brother as she brought the correct subroutines online, "Wake me when we get there, alright?"

"Sure." 17 replied without taking his eyes off the road.

Getting as comfortable as she could considering where she was, she closed her eyes and immediately fell asleep. Not that it could be termed sleep as normal humans did but, thankfully, it wasn't the sleep that Gero had stuck her in after the first time she and her brother defied him. It was more along the lines of establishing a more direct connection with her internal data network via a three dimensional mental landscape array. It had been created by the good doctor for those files that could not be allowed to be seen or stand a chance of falling into the wrong hands. That was why it was uploaded directly into her computer core via a secure terminal rather then in paper form or perhaps on a floppy disk. Looking up, metaphorically speaking, of course, she skimmed through the various files she possessed for something that would make her rest a pleasant one or at least kill some time until her pre-determined wake up time. There weren't any pretty scenery files or anything, Gero had made sure that any non-essential files were removed from her database, but as she considered her options one file could very well do the trick. Bringing it up in her mindscape, the area around her mental self changed to the canyon road where she pounded Vegeta into the ground. While it was true that it had been amusing showing that pompous fool where he stood in the grand scheme of things the moment she was most interested in came only after all but two of Goku's friends lay defeated on the ground.

It was the moment when the Saiyan hunk approached the three of them with his transparent attempt to save his friends from a swift and permanent death.

She had thought about him off and on since that moment, never once really giving up on the idea of making him hers somehow. So far she had made some progress in that she had reworked some of the Saiyan's own argument to her advantage but it would take more than appealing to the idiot's sense of fun. Tricking him into sparing the unknown Saiyan for the purpose of having a satisfactory sparring partner wouldn't be enough to lock 17 into the position. It would require something a little more, something her brother would want on his own, in order to convince him to spare the person she found herself desiring more and more. She wasn't sure whether or not it was something akin to a desire for a pet or if it was what humans called 'love'. Publically she'd call it the former since she knew it would only cause problems with her brother if she said it was the latter but if indeed it was the latter, that could very well be the truth. Before Gero had taken them in, she had been too young to really have much of an interest in guys and there was no time while she was in the lab to do anything but feed her growing hatred of the 'good doctor'. Now that she was free of the detestable doctor, she was able to truly follow her desires when they appeared rather than curb them to avoid another session with the Red Ribbon scientist's equipment. It was true that she still had to kill Goku before she could completely enjoy her freedom to its fullest but she didn't foresee any problems with that. She'd already proven by defeating Vegeta that she had what it took to wipe the floor with a Super Saiyan and that was the best this planet had to offer.

_It won't take me and my brother long to dispatch Goku and his friends._ She thought as she began to walk around the 3D rendering of the object of her attention, _I just need to make sure that I'm the one that deals with the unnamed Saiyan. I'll rough him up a bit, then take pity on him. That should be enough to keep 17 from doing anything too drastic._

It was a definite plus on the part of her design that she had a technological counterpart to the 'ki sense' that her enemy's possessed. It gave her the ability to render her immediate environment mentally in all three dimensions, allowing for a much more accurate grasp of the battlefield then that lousy ki sensing ability. The fact that her systems also recorded every second of every moment she was online meant that anytime she wanted to relive a moment or experience it as a non-existent observer, she could. It was useful for times like these when she wanted to scrutinize **every** detail of something and right now the focus of her inspection was the unknown Saiyan. Walking around the image of the handsome warrior, she couldn't help but admit that there was quite a bit to admire from what she could see. True, some of it was extrapolated but she had faith that the image she was looking at was so close to the real deal that any differences would be inconsequential. Well muscled without being bulky to the point of being ugly and his build was consistent with a limber martial artist so, body-wise, he was pretty nice. In terms of his head, his kind brown eyes and his mouth looked like it could smile in a way that could inspire some nice feelings in her. She already had some experience with his lips when she took them for a test drive kiss and she had to admit that she'd had a warm tingle on her own as she flew away. If intimate contact with just them was pleasing, she could imagine what more thorough contact would cause her to feel.

_Just keep yourself alive, my mysterious Saiyan friend. _She thought as she let the file slide back into its directory, _Once I get that foolish Goku out of the way, we'll have all the time in the world._

That brought a small smile to her face as she returned to the waking world right on schedule. Looking out the window of the van, she found that they were still in the woods and barely kept a growl from escaping her lips at this info. From what she could tell by comparing the scenery in her last waking moment file to what she could see now they had travelled, at best, ten kilometres. She was about to complain to 17 again when she spotted something near the edge of a nearby lake and, with her electronic eyes, zoomed in for a closer look. It would appear that two teenage humans were swimming in the lake in the nude and having a fine time. Usually this would barely even register with her but then a thought crossed her mind that brought a smile to her face. Focusing her sensors on the female of the pair, she quickly ascertained the girl's measurements from top to bottom, causing her smile to only get larger. The woman was close enough to herself that the differences would not be noticeable to your average plebian. After all, not everyone had eyes like hers and that meant that the young woman's clothes would be just perfect for her. With that in mind she opened the passenger-side door and prepared to fly out into the open air.

"I'll be back in a minute, 17." She said before taking to the air and heading for the lake.

It took her mere seconds to reach the lakeside and even less to locate the female's clothes and she definitely liked what she saw. Black boots that went just past the ankle, blue jeans, some sort of accessory that looked like a watch hanging from the belt, white T-shirt, black vest with a badge on it, black gloves and a pearl necklace made up the entire outfit. Definitely a step up from the dreadful cowgirl outfit she'd had to wear since visiting that hick town in the mountains to the North and if she was going to kill Goku, she had to look her best. Without further delay she began to get rid of the outfit, not caring that the two swimmers had finally noticed her presence. After all they were only humans and if they pissed her off, she could always just vaporize them into a pair of ash clouds with a single blast.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Asked the man who, in a move of modesty, didn't move close enough to the shore that the water would no longer cover his sex organ.

"What does it look like you geek?" She said pulling the dark shirt over her head, "I'm sick of wearing this hick outfit and your slut just so happens to be the same size as me. Don't worry, she can have my hand me downs."

"Who're you callin' a slut, you blonde bitch!?" Roared the female as her anger made her forget her modesty as she stepped forward.

"Are deaf or something?" She asked rhetorically as she removed her skirt and tights, "I called you a slut but then I guess that that would be too high a compliment for the likes of you. Perhaps Ms. Whore would be better, or maybe Little Pussy Cat. What do you think?"

This pretty much reduced the foolish woman's thought processes to 'kill, kill, kill' and, as she charged forwards, it was with an almost negligent backhand that she set the girl flying into a tree. Unfortunately, seeing as how she was created, to be a killing machine strong enough to kill Goku, even a glancing blow from her was enough to shatter the woman's jaw on contact. When added to the collision with the tree and the woman would probably be lucky if the worst thing that happened her was that she was forced to live the rest of her life in a wheelchair. With a sigh, she knew that given what happened to his girlfriend, the male probably would charge her next so she decided to nip that issue in the bud and, with a pencil-thin beam of energy, she pierced him through the waist paralyzing him as well. It was true that her beam would likely have cauterized the wound and so the fool wouldn't bleed to death but odds are that he would either starve to death or die of thirst before anyone found him. For a moment she wondered why she was even contemplating the consequences of her actions, considering it didn't really matter to her what happened to these humans. Still… she supposed it'd just tip off Goku and his friends if she just left them there so, with a negligent thrusting of her right and left hands, she vaporized both humans until there was nothing but ashes left behind.

With that issue handled, she quickly dressed up in the deceased and dustbin destined young woman's clothes before taking to the air. It didn't take long for her to catch up to the pink van and, with some aerial manoeuvring, it was easy to slide back into the passenger seat of the vehicle. 17 barely took his eyes off of the trees ahead of him to look at her but she could tell that he wanted to roll her eyes at her leaving the van for a change of clothes. While it could very well just be one of his personal quirks, she supposed it was something universal to men in general. If that was the case, then she'd have to learn to train the Saiyan to suppress it on threat of a serious beating if he didn't mind himself. In any case, she now had her new clothes, ones that were a decided step up from her cowgirl threads, and with a little luck they'd be at the Son home before too long. Once there they could kill Goku and whoever was stupid enough to get in their way then move on to live their lives however they wished. She wasn't sure what she'd do after fulfilling her primary programming aside from explore her connection with that unknown Saiyan, but 17 would probably go on an endless search for 'fun'. She'd have to check in on her sibling from time to time to make sure that the idiot did send the planet back to the stone age in terms of technology or towns. After all, it was only a matter of time before she got tired of this outfit and wanted to try something new but if there were no stores left because her sibling blew them all up, she was going to be **pissed**.

_Yep! Brother or no brother, he's going to get the pretzel treatment if he doesn't watch where he's blasting._ She thought as she looked ahead to the path through the trees that only 17 could see.

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_**One Day Later, Ruins of the Red Ribbon Army HQ, Picollo's P.O.V**_

_I hope this plan works._ Piccolo thought while he sat and meditated in the back of Yamcha's Air Van, _Because if it doesn't, we're back to square one._

Still at least Xander was back in action, despite Chi-Chi's protesting that he needed to stay off his feet for at least another day. He had seen the young man's shins when he'd walked into the former Red Ribbon building that they'd been using to hide Goku and, while there was still some discoloration, it wasn't enough to keep him out of the fighting. Thus with much reluctance Chi-Chi eventually conceded that while the Saiyan from another dimension might be her brother-in-law, she didn't have the right to boss him around like she did her husband. The lucky sonuvabitch! The rest of them weren't nearly as fortunate since whenever the rest of them were in range of her, she never resisted a chance to chastise them for something. Whether it was for keep Gohan from the books or not having a 'real job', she always yelled at them until they were all properly cowed into submission. It bothered him afterwards that he, the son of the former Demon King, was being pushed around and forced in submission by someone who couldn't even come close to matching him in terms of power. Every once in a while he did try to stand up to her or even ignore her whenever she got into one of her ranting moods but whether it was because of her dominating personality or the side portion of goodness that had been growing inside of him, he lost every time. He'd have to ask Xander if there was some sort of trick to it or if it was simply a case of being Chi-Chi's in-law and being injured. If it was the former, he'd hound the young man for as long as it took to get the technique out of him but if it turned out to be the latter… well… he'd keep trying to think up the perfect strategy for dealing with the she-devil known as Chi-Chi Son.

Opening his eyes for a moment, he looked across to the other side of the Air Van and saw that Xander was still trying to work the kinks out of his own strategy for finding Cell. The rest of them were still working with Yamcha's idea of using his Air Van to try and get to Cell's latest feeding ground so as to not give away their approach by using ki-propelled flight. It sounded nice in theory but he seriously doubted that Cell wouldn't have anticipated this sort of plan. The monster had shown itself to be supremely cunning in its ability to predict their methods and with the likes of Vegeta, Freeza, King Kold and himself in his genetic make-up, underestimating the abomination would be a bad idea. Xander, on the other hand, was trying something both cunningly clever but also seriously difficult to the point where none of the others, himself included, had ever tried it. It was his plan to stretch out with his ki senses as far as was possible without losing the ability to pick out details and then try to locate areas where the ki signatures of individual people were vanishing at a high rate of speed. Such an area would most likely be where Cell was attacking allowing them to get there much quicker than if they relied on news broadcasts on the radio. The cousin of The Vegetable had even said that if he could locate where Cell was using this method, he'd try to use the Instant Transmission technique he learned from Goku to take them instantly to that location. If it worked they'd be able to follow Cell anywhere or at least force the monster to regulate its feeding habits severely in order to remain undetected. The problem, though, was that with a few noticeable exceptions, all humans and Animalians had roughly the same power level and when you added in the non-sentient animals, it was difficult to tell the difference between the three. It would take supreme focus and a level of sensitivity he knew was difficult for even him to achieve to be able to make Xander's plan work.

_Still, if he can manage it, then it'll be an improvement over Yamcha's plan._ He thought as he resumed his own meditation.

"Are we there yet, Yamcha?" Tien asked before moving towards the pilot and co-pilot chairs.

"We'll be there soon. I have the van going as quick as she'll go." Yamcha replied taking a moment to look over his shoulder.

"Well hurry it up!" Tien declared, sounding irritated at flying at such a slow rate of speed.

While he hoped that this complaining didn't last for long, he could understand why his comrade felt as he did. When you're used to routinely flying under you own power and travelling through the sky so quickly that it's like even the fastest man-made aircraft are standing still, it was bothersome to get to where you want to go any other way. He personally hadn't gone this slow since the first day he'd taken to the air years ago when he was still filled with the hate-fueled desire to kill Goku. Considering how much more powerful he'd become, it was staggering to be forced to go at such a snail's pace. Still, he didn't want to ruin Yamcha's plan before it'd even gotten started. The guy had enough of an inferiority complex as it was thanks to living in the same place as Vegeta for so long. Indeed, ever since the fight on North Kai's planet with the deceased members of the Ginyu force, the core member of Goku's group had been on a downward spiral strength-wise. If it wasn't his long nights of partying it was the fact that all it took for the guy to get distracted from training was a half-decent looking female to walk by. He supposed that in the end you just couldn't take the desert bandit out of a guy like Yamcha since that was originally what the guy had been. He'd been a bandit in the desert who attacked a young Goku, Bulma and Oolong who had been passing through on their way to claim the final dragonball from that idiot Pilaf. From what he'd heard and learned on his own, the man had essentially been leading the life of a vagabond, depending on what he could get from people going through the desert to survive. From the looks of things, unless Yamcha did something substantial to change his lifestyle, it was only a matter of time before he'd find himself back in that sort of life. He didn't really care all that much, each man's life was his own, but it seemed like something of a waste for the guy to go from one of the most powerful humans on the planet to just a dusty thief in the desert.

"We have to stop him and quickly." Tien said as the three eyed human retreated a bit towards the rear of the van.

"We have to find him first, though, and that'll be a problem so long as he keeps masking his ki signature." He pointed out, hoping to nip a potential whining spiel in the bud.

"Ahhh!" Krillin sighed with his hands on his hips, "We could sure use Goku right about now."

If anyone asked him about it later, he'd deny it but when the blurred form of that same simple minded Saiyan materialized inside the van, he could swear to the possibility that his former enemy had waited until someone said those precise words before appearing. For those quick enough on the uptake it took them less than a second to notice the presence of the newcomer but Krillin on the other hand kept on rambling on about how much they could use Goku's assistance.

"It's my Dad." Gohan gasped at his father's sudden arrival.

This was pretty much the reaction of everyone in the vehicle except from Krillin who hadn't clued in yet and Xander who was still attempting to fine tune his ki senses. Eventually though the number of comments about Goku's arrival did the trick and the short and bald member of their team finally turned around.

"Hey!" Goku said with a slight salute.

Then like a person whose feet were firmly planted in denial Krillin turned away muttering something about finally suffering delusions in response to the dire present circumstances. Considering everything the fighter had been through since he'd begun his journey as a martial artist, it wasn't entirely unreasonable to be worried about suffering a mental break of some kind. Still, he figured it'd be about three or four seconds before the guy clued in that Goku really was back and apparently as healthy as the rest of them were.

Just like clockwork, the shortest member of the team after Gohan eventually realised that his best friend was back but the joy of the moment was quick to go to the young man's shiny cranium. Within seconds it looked like the happy guy would tackle the unofficial leader of their team of warriors right through the rear hatch of the vehicle and into the open air. However Xander must not have been very deep into his efforts because just as the duo was about to break through the wall the newest member of their team intercepted them and stopped them in their tracks.

"Easy Krillin. We're all glad to have Goku back on his feet but I don't think Yamcha would like it if you damaged part of his ride." Xander said with a half smile before letting go of the two.

"Ah…yeah…thanks Xander." Krillin said, sounding a little embarrassed about what had almost happened.

With that handled, the rest of the chuckleheads in the van with him were a little more careful in expressing their joy at the return of their strongest member and he had to admit it was nice that their team was back to full strength. It would also be good since it meant that Goku was no longer a stationary target for the three androids currently searching the world for him. While he still wouldn't be willing to put money down on the possibility of Goku actually managing to defeat one of them, the simpleton's various techniques would make pinning him down for assassination more difficult. So long as the lug didn't do anything foolish, they could bide their time until an effective way of dealing with the situation could be devised.

"Kamiccolo!" Goku exclaimed after determining what changes his former rival had undergone.

Shocked at both the ridiculous name and the fact that his former enemy had managed to add up the facts to get the right answer so quick, he almost missed the chuckling that the others were engaging in. Almost.

"Listen! I've been through some changes recently but I'm still Piccolo where it matters and don't you forget it." He said with a stern voice so as to make it clear that any further combinations of the names Kami and Piccolo would not be appreciated.

"Sure thing! No problem!" Goku said, obviously not planning on heeding the warning anytime soon.

However even the simpleton seemed to know that now was not the time for jokes as his expression changed to something decidedly more business-like.

"Hey, Piccolo. I know what's going on and I just can't see us beating something like Cell as we are right now. I know that you and Xander took him on recently but you barely managed to hold your own against him and I'm not sure he was even fighting you two seriously then." Goku said, showing how he could be considered Earth's premiere defender even with his idiot moments, "That's why I think that me, Gohan, Vegeta, Xander and Trunks should start training again."

"What sort of training could you do that would work at a time like this?" Yamcha asked, obviously wondering if they could really afford to have some of their strongest fighters off the grid for that long.

"I know a place where we can get a full year of training accomplished in a single day." Goku replied with a determination that would serve him well in the coming weeks of training.

"So it's back to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for you five then?" He asked, easily managing to figure out the Saiyan's plan, "A dangerous plan."

While he himself had never been in the room, the parts of him that were Kami knew quite a bit about the pocket dimension that was connected to the Lookout. It was pretty much a single living area centered around the entrance/exit surrounded on all sides by endless nothingness that, theoretically, went on forever. Add to that fluctuating environmental conditions like gravity or temperature and it made for an impressive place to get stronger in a hurry. However it also had some limitations that had to be observed. The most important one being that a person can only use the room twice, roughly amounting to two days in the real world while two years would go by inside, and any attempt to try for a third would result in the person being locked inside permanently. It also likely meant that anyone who tried to get inside after that third attempt would find themselves unable to open the door no matter how hard they tried. He had always wondered why there existed such a limit but neither he nor Kami were able to discern a valid reason why the creator of the lookout would make it so. While he wasn't going to push the matter, he might make it a hobby of his to figure out a way to increase the number of times that a person could use the chamber.

"I know, but I figure between the five of us, at least one should be able to ascend past the level of Super Saiyan." Goku said sounding like he realised the perilous nature of his proposed training ground.

"Then go. Quickly! Cell gets stronger every day." He said hopefully making it clear that time was of the essence.

"I appreciate the offer, Goku, but I'm staying planet-side for the time being. " Xander said as he went back to his meditative position on the floor of the Air Van.

"What? But why?" Gohan asked, sounding disappointed that he wouldn't be able to train again with his uncle.

"Because aside from Piccolo, I'm the only one who has previous combat experience with Cell. I have a pretty good grip on how he fights and what he can do." Xander replied stubbornly as he closed his eyes to return to the sharpening of his ki sense, "Also, if Gero's test tube titan could handle me and the Namek together, if I bail for training there's a much greater chance that Mr. Bug will defeat these guys much quicker than if I stay put. No offense, guys, but you're going to need all the help you can get just to keep things from getting any worse while the others train."

While he was a bit surprised at the young man's decision it made sense. The others were good fighters but they had all lost pretty quickly at the hands of Androids 17 and 18 in that first fight. By his reckoning, Cell could be almost a third stronger than the Android trio and that meant if they could swat the others aside so easily Cell probably wouldn't even consider them entertainment. Not that Xander was his equal in the power department but he was resourceful and had experience from his own world in fighting enemies that were as much as four times stronger then him physically. That would help even things out and, in the end, the young man was right in that the delay team would need all the help they could get if they were going to buy enough time for the others to complete their training. Therefore he said nothing to oppose the young Saiyan's decision and that pretty much meant the others could only quietly fume at the slight that had been made concerning their strength.

"Alright then. Let's go, Gohan." Goku said extending a hand to his son, "Take my hand."

The youngest member of their team did not hesitate and, with a whoosh of air, the Instant Transmission technique the Saiyan and his son vanished into thin air.


	14. Confrontations a Long Time Coming

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write only for my own person enjoyment and for those readers who enjoy reading my work.

Note: It has been brought to my attention that this fanfic might be sticking a little too close to canon when it comes to the Anime series version of Dragonball Z. I can understand that and to a degree I agree with this statement. Therefore consider this the beginning of a true deviation from canon. Enjoy!

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_**The Ruins of the Primary Red Ribbon Army HQ, The Next Day, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well this has been a big fat waste of time!_ Xander thought as he sat down in a corner of the building that Goku had recuperated in, _No matter how quickly we try to get to him, Cell's always gone by the time we arrive! It's maddening!!_

As one group they'd been doing their best for the last twenty-four hours straight to confront Cell but, no matter what method they tried, it was always coming up short. His attempt to use his ki sensing ability in conjunction with the instant transmission technique fell through for the simple fact that there were so many people in the world and none of them stood out enough to tell one from another. With these problems, it was difficult to pick out the cities amidst all the background noise that the ki generated by all living things produced. Usually he had no trouble picking out the ki signatures of the others, but then again they were like huge bonfires whereas the majority of the population of this world was like a sea of matches surrounded by orange embers. It'd gotten to the point that the only way he could sense them with any real accuracy was if he got within ten miles of them. Any further away and he might as well be looking at one big fire rather than a grouping of little flames. Piccolo had still tried to make the plan at least partially effective by having him teleport them in as soon as they got word of a location being hit by Cell. They hoped that using a technique that could literally get them from one side of the planet to another in the blink of an eye would allow them to finally catch up with their quarry.

Unfortunately, after a few close calls, Cell got smart and neutralized all means of communication in his target city before digging into his meal of innocent lives.

By doing this, the only way they found out about the massacres when the rest of the world did and, needless to say, this happened as much as an hour after the fact. From there they'd tried to predict Cell's next target by making a list of cities and towns close by the last one hit then evaluate each potential target based on a wide variety of criteria. They'd all hoped that by knowing the personalities and habits of the warriors that Gero had gotten Cell's genetic material from, that they'd be able to predict which concentration of innocents would be hit next. This, however, only resulted in more near misses before the abomination changed his habits once again. Now the attacks went from one side of the world to the other with no real pattern to them aside from the fact that the freak had stopped hitting the small towns and only hit the big cities now. No doubt he was trying to increase his power as swiftly as possible so he could confront Androids 17 and 18 sooner rather than later. A smart move, considering that if he dragged his feet further, he and the other Z fighters might eventually figure out a way to catch up to him. The Androids were being a little more obvious about their movements but not enough for anyone to pin down their precise movements. Cell, though, would likely be able to track them down fairly easily since Gero had designed him to merge with 17 and 18. Whether it was through some sort of hidden tracking beacon that the duo had in their bodies or that their power source was somehow sending out waves that the monster could pick up on, he didn't know. He just knew that they had to kill off the duo or the freak before they faced each other or it'd all be over for them one way or another.

He wasn't delusional about the chances 17 and 18 had of beating the creature that had been designed to absorb them.

It didn't make any sense, after all, to give those two the ability to fight against their intended purpose and Gero would have known that from the beginning no matter how insane he was.

"If you're planning on going outside today: don't. Creature sightings are at an all time high." Came the voice of the news man from the TV that they'd been using, "Today would be a good day to stay inside and lock your doors. These are dangerous times, folks, and we really hope that there is someone somewhere who can stop this murderous thing."

"Grrrr, I can't stand it! Sitting here doing nothing while Cell continues his reign of terror!" Piccolo growled from his own spot in the room.

"No choice on that matter, Piccolo. Yamcha and the others are only human." He said without opening his own eyes thus breaking his battle meditative state, "They don't have the stamina to keep up the search for more than twenty-four hours straight. Give them a couple hours of sleep and they'll be ready to go no problem."

"And if Cell manages to wipe out three towns by then?" Piccolo asked, sounding like he thought the Z fighters should tough it out and keep going until they drop from exhaustion.

"Then we better hope you can or another Namek can whip up another set of Dragonballs because we're probably going to need them before this is all over with." He replied opening one eye to glare a bit at the Namek, "Especially if Cell manages to absorb one of the Androids. Depending on how big the power up is that he gets, we could find entire regions going up in smoke from just a single blast."

That was something he'd been thinking about during the few moments of peace and quiet where his thoughts weren't centered on figuring out some way to catch up with Gero's latest gift to the world. Based on what Cell said before, the abomination really believed that once he had absorbed both Android 17 and Android 18 that he would be the pinnacle of how strong a warrior could become throughout all of existence. If that was even half accurate, then by just absorbing one of the Androids Cell would become stronger than any fighter currently stationed on Earth. Even with the training in the Time Chamber on Kami's Look Out, they might not become strong enough to defeat the bug-faced monster in a full out fight. It made him want to suggest to the others that they should switch their focus from Cell to the Androids and have Piccolo, as the strongest among them, take on those toaster ovens one at a time. If things went that way then maybe they could eliminate the duo before Cell could absorb them and then it'd simply be a matter of focusing on the monstrous creation of Dr. Gero. If the Namek's powers were anything to go by, he should not be strong enough to take on one of the Androids without too much trouble. It pissed him off a bit that he couldn't lend a hand but, even if he pumped his power level up as high as it would go, he wouldn't even be a distraction. Vegeta's max power as a Super Saiyan wasn't that much **weaker** than his own that he could confidently say that a fight between him and one of the Androids would turn out differently. He might get a few more shots in before getting pounded into the ground but he'd still go down and he doubted very much that they'd fall for the same 'keep us around so we can get stronger and put up a better fight' trick. He was pretty sure they only flew away before because they weren't being entertained well enough to bother sticking around anymore. For at least the guy 'bot, the whole thing from fighting them to killing Goku was just one big game that he intended to enjoy to the fullest.

He was about to ask the Namek about how strong he figured Cell might get if he absorbed one of the Androids when something… obscure… caught his attention fully. He wasn't sure what it was at first but it was enough to jerk him completely out of his meditative state and make him look around for the source. Piccolo, it seemed, had picked up on this as well and was already making his way to the front of the building since that was where something new most likely would be. Getting to his feet, he walked over to the window and, almost in perfect synch with the Namek, almost dropped his jaw in shock at what he saw.

Standing outside of the building, visible through the window the structure had, was none other than Androids 16, 17 and 18.

_When it rains it pours shit down on everyone!_ He thought as he tried to figure out how this situation could get any worse.

For one thing it bothered him quite a bit that they'd been able to track Goku to this location even if the Saiyan wasn't actually there anymore. Even with the sharpest ki sense, the Z warriors could only sense where a person was rather than where they were. Had they simply come her because this was the last place that they'd sensed him clearly? Probably. Hopefully. Didn't change the fact that they were here now and even a perfectly logical argument probably wouldn't get them to come back later.

"Hi. Can Goku come out and play?" Asked Android 17 with a look on his face that was not of the good.

Definitely someone who liked to play with his prey before vaporizing them.

Then things got even worse.

"Goku is not here." Said the giant that was Android 16 while casting his mechanical eyes about the area.

"Not **here**!" Android 17 said, sounding distinctly miffed at that bit of news.

He noticed when Piccolo went back inside to alert the others but he remained where he was so that the mechanical monsters would keep their attention focused on him. That would hopefully buy some time for the others to really wake up and get ready for what was looking to be another bout of pain. It didn't take long for Krillin, Yamcha and Tien to get out behind him but for once he was glad that Chi-Chi had decided to go back home now that her husband was back on his feet. He could only imagine the chaos that she'd cause if she were here.

Hearing a measured set of steps, he knew that Piccolo was taking up the rear and was getting ready to make a move. With that in mind he began to warm up his own powers without overtly raising his power level enough to register on a scouter. Hopefully this would allow him to jump in and help the Namek if it turned out to be necessary.

"Goku's not here right now but perhaps I could take his place." Piccolo stated, not bothering to hide his dislike of the androids.

_Looks like Piccolo had the same idea I did. _He thought with a mental grin, _If Bandana boy takes the bait then we just might have a chance here._

"No thanks, but tell us where he is and I might change my mind." Android 17 said, not accepting the proposal entirely.

"Look Goku's gone now so why don't you just get lost!" Piccolo stated with a bit more anger than necessary.

"Now, now, it's not very nice to talk to your guests that way." 17 chastised with mocking tones in his voice.

"Alright! Have it your way." Piccolo said with a feral grin on his face, "Over near that forest to the north. You and me."

"Very well. If you **really** want to." Android 17 said as though speaking to a particularly dumb person.

"You four stay here. This is **my** fight." Piccolo said lookin at the rest of the Z team.

With those words the Namek Android 16 and Android 17 took to the sky but when the blonde Android 18 didn't do likewise, he had a bad feeling that there might have been more to her little kiss last time than just messing with his head. He didn't know what the 'more' might be, but he very much doubted it'd be fun at all for him or the rest of the gang. It took only ten seconds for the two other Androids and Piccolo to notice this and halt their flight towards the mountain range that existed to the south of the building.

"18 c'mon! What're you doing?" Android 17 asked, sounding mildly annoyed by her not following his lead.

"Like I want to sit around watching two males pound the crap out of one another," replied the blonde 'bot, sounding like she was already bored just from contemplating it. "At least last time I had someone to fight with. Maybe I can get one of these other losers to play with me while you do… whatever… with the Namek. I might get some amusement from that at least."

…_to play with me…_

Those words immediately caused all sorts of XXX imagery to pop into his mind to the point that he was sure that if this was some sort of dimension where the rules of Anime applied, he'd be experiencing a nosebleed at the moment. After all there are a variety of ways that 'play with me' can be interpreted, depending on who precisely said it in the first place. If it was done by a pre-teen kid, then obviously it could only mean sports, tag or something else equally normal and ethical. That could even be said to apply when a person was just hitting their early teens, albeit with some room for misinterpretation. For those fifteen years of age and older, though, things took a decidedly naughtier turn when you tried to figure out what 'play with me' meant. Especially if the person wasn't doing their best 'I am a five year old in the body of a twenty-five year old' routine. Then again there was the fact that it could mean simply that she wanted to kick his ass all around the mountains and simply considered him so weak that it'd be no more difficult than kicking a soccer ball around. If that was indeed the case, then he seriously had to wonder why his mind went to the more arousing possibilities first.

_**SUPPRESS! SUPPRESS! REPRESS!**_ He thought to himself as he did his best to not only stop his mind from going in that direction but also destroy the tracks that took him this far already.

"Well, well, it looks like I have my first volunteer!" Android 18 said, looking right at him with a look in her eyes that he did **not** like at all.

"What you do you mean volunteer? I didn't—" he stated, not exclaimed no, matter what the others claimed, before he looked to either side to find that Krillin, Yamcha and Tien had all taken two BIG steps back leaving him all by his lonesome.

It was a near thing but he managed to keep from turning around and letting those three weaklings know precisely what he thought of them. He would not let this blonde bimbo 'bot know how much her presence was affecting him no matter what. He'd stay calm, cool and so utterly like his cousin Vegeta that others would have no difficulty believing that they were related by blood. It'd only get worse for him if the others found out that he was having dirty thoughts about one of the Androids they had to destroy to save the world and all that shit. If they found out about **those** thoughts, they'd either bench him on the premise that they couldn't trust him to go all out against her or they'd constantly needle him with the fact that he had… feelings… for what essentially a pile of flesh, wires and circuits moulded into the form of a beautiful blonde. He was not looking forward to being humorously harassed by the others like that because he knew he wouldn't be able to pound them into paste like his instincts would likely compel him to.

"Tch. Fine. But we're not doing it here." He said as he rose into the air with his arms crossed over his chest, "We'll do it in the mountains to the south so we won't get in anyone's way. Good enough?"

"Whatever. It won't make the outcome any different." Android 18 said, sounding indifferent but with a twinkle in her eyes that made it look like she was eager for things to begin.

With that the two of them flew off towards the mountains he'd indicated while an annoyed Android 17 and a likely concerned Piccolo going off in the other direction.

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_**The Mountain Range South of the Ruins of the Red Ribbon Army HQ, One Minute Later**_

_**Android 18's P.O.V**_

"You ready to get this started big boy?" Android 18 asked as they came to a stop in the middle of the Northern Mountain Range.

"Sure, though I hope you'll do me the courtesy of waiting until I fully power up before attacking." The unknown Saiyan said with a lopsided smile that didn't match up to that infuriating Saiyan smirk.

"Be my guest. I'd hate to appear inconsiderate." She said before deciding that she had to ask one question, "Though before you do, how about telling me your name. I need something to carve on your tombstone, after all."

"Sure. The name's Xander." Stated the no longer unknown Saiyan named Xander as he took up a stance that was typical of a warrior preparing to raise their ki level, "AAAHHHH!"

With that bellow she watched as her sensors began to register a rapid increase in Xander's power level, going past the hundred thousand level and rapidly ascending to the level that Vegeta was at when he had that weird glowing, golden hair. Then, with a sudden surge of power, his ki aura changed from white to golden along with most likely every hair on his body while his eyes turned a cold aqua green that lesser beings would no doubt be intimidated by. Fortunately she was no such lesser being and merely waited patiently for the object of her fascination to reach his maximum power output. It didn't take as long as she thought it would and it was something of a surprise to find out that, according to her sensors, Xander was at least two hundred and fifty thousand power points higher than Vegeta. Considering that the arrogant midget was supposed to be of the best genetic stock the Saiyan race possessed and had been taught by the best teachers on their home world, it should have been impossible for Xander to be stronger. At least by the Saiyan mindset that is.

_Guess it goes to show that Vegeta being the Prince of all Saiyans means absolutely nothing when it comes to getting stronger._ She thought as she settled into a loose fighting stance, _Time to see if Xander really is strong or if its all a big light show._

Darting forward she selected Northern Praying Mantis Style from the list of martial arts styles in her database and began to employ its techniques. Waiting for the Saiyan to make the first move, she was quick to parry his blow to the side and then strike at the area exposed by her diverting of Xander's attack. This worked for a while as the young man no doubt tried to figure out a way to attack her without leaving himself open but eventually he adopted a practice of rapidly leaving her fighting territory before she could do anything more than miss. As far as his fighting style was concerned, there were elements of both Goku's and Vegeta's techniques but there was also something else present that she couldn't quite identify. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, of course, she was still far superior to him in terms of both speed as well as power, but he fortunately lacked the crippling arrogance that the Vegetable possessed. That made the young man a more efficient and strategic-minded fighter since he wasn't all that focused on showing off or proving his superiority over his opponent. This upped the difficulty level of the fight to two or three times greater than what she experienced fighting Vegeta and that definitely made it more amusing than listening to that windbag go on and on about his superior abilities. Still, she was going to have to do something to spice things up since if hand-to-hand combat was this amusing, then adding some ki attacks should prove to be even more entertaining.

"You fight quite well… for a Saiyan. Still, this fight is missing something… special." She said as she floated a decent distance away from the warrior, "I know! Why don't we add some fireworks to our little sparring match? PHOTON BLITZ!!"

She knew that strictly speaking she didn't have to call out the name of the attack but she believed that it'd give her Saiyan sparring partner a little help. With movements that would be little more than a blur to the young man, she began to unleash a volley of energy bullets at a rapid fire pace that left little more than two feet between shots. Xander, though, seemed up to the task of evading them but he was definitely feeling pressure since a few times he had no choice but to force an energy bullet to the side physically. She'd, of course, properly calibrated her attack so that it was just above what she thought the young Saiyan could handle just to make sure that the fighter wouldn't have **too** easy of a time fighting her. It was about five minutes later that he began unleashing energy attacks of his own but they were for the most part just copies of the techniques used by Goku and his friends. She had a complete database of every technique ever recorded by Dr. Gero's spy bug and this told her everything from what physical movements are employed as well as the form the ki attacks would take. This made predicting what Xander would do easy enough but, just so he wouldn't get discouraged, she made sure that it **appeared** that she was putting forth some effort to deal with his assaults. If she didn't then he might start getting frustrated and that would make him sloppy, which would reduce her amusement considerably.

Then he did something that she hadn't anticipated.

He used three bursts of speed to close the distance between them in as many seconds.

_Definitely an improvement over Vegeta._ She thought as she waited until the last possible moment before she thrust her barrier out of her body, both to deflect and push back her adversary.

The muscled Saiyan wasn't able to stop himself in time and so hit the energy barrier at full speed, stunning him and allowing him to be thrown back a good fifty yards before recovering. There was a slight bruise on Xander's jaw from the act but he didn't let it phase him much and she could see in his eyes that he was working to adjust his battle plans to take the barrier into account. This was no arrogant fool or idiot savant she was facing here, but rather a warrior who actually thought before he moved and used every new piece of information to bring him one step closer to victory. This made the 'playtime' more and more amusing since her sparring partner actually managed to surprise her from time to time, even though he lacked the ability to fully take advantage of the opportunity. Nevertheless, he was a determined fighter who never once showed fear and never once disappointed her in how he performed against her. He was indeed a young man worthy of her attention and perhaps worthy of more if she could somehow convince 17 not to kill the Saiyan without her permission. While her brother might see his existence as a game with everyone but him and perhaps her being expendable items to be thrown away at his convenience, she did not. She had no real like or dislike for the pathetic peons of this world but she did prefer that this planet remain more or less in one piece and could only see herself blowing something up if one of these ants pissed her off somehow.

In short, she knew how to take better care of her toys than 17 did.

The problem rested with the fact that her sibling didn't understand that there were a finite number of humans on this world and only so many places to visit. If her idiot brother destroyed everything then the planet would become so boring and it'd be pointless to continue living on Earth with it being little more than a pile of rubble. For both the situation with Xander and the civilized parts of the world, she would need some sort of leverage or logic to keep him from giving into his impulses at the drop of a hat. At the moment the only argument she had any confidence in was that they had to pace themselves if they wanted to get every ounce of enjoyment they could out of this world. Just like a finely cooked meal, it'd be a waste to wolf it all down as quickly as possible. One should take the time to savour the things in life that made living worth it.

Maybe she should find a human female that struck 17's fancy?

_Nah! He's never shown much interest in females to begin with. _She thought as the battle between her and Xander resumed, _You'd think that the puberty fairy lost his file or something._

Catching a punch from Xander in her right hand while blocking a kick with her knee, she looked him in the eye and asked, "So, are you having as much fun as I am, Xander?"

"Tons." He replied before managing to force her to release his fist with a clever manipulation of his arm and his position relative to her.

"Me too. I must say your quite a bit better than Vegeta." She said as she took a moment to take full stock of his condition, "While he might have the edge in experience, you're the smarter one."

"Vegeta is an arrogant asshole who lets every little power increase he achieves go straight to his head without exception." Xander said, showing his dislike for his fellow Saiyan without any censoring, "I may have my helping of Saiyan Pride but I don't let it get in the way of doing what needs to be done."

"Smart. Well, enough talking," she said before using a burst of speed to cross the distance between them in an instant before delivering a kick to the young Saiyan's side. "Time to resume fighting."

With a smile on her face she flew down in pursuit able to fully admit that she was enjoying this fight quite a bit even though her sparring partner had no chance of getting close to beating her.

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_**A Large City Half a World Away, Same Time, Cell's P.O.V**_

_Well, well, well! It looks like I'll be completing my evolution a little sooner than I expected._ Cell thought as he finished draining his current meal dry.

He had been having a busy day moving from city to city, devouring all those that inhabited them, and he had three more cities in mind when he had picked up two energy signatures that caught his interest. One was recognizable as belonging to Piccolo while the other belonged to the court jester of Saiyans Xander Harris. Both of them he sensed had raised their power levels to such heights that they could only be engaging in battle with someone of significant strength. The two were too far apart from one another to be sparring one another and that left only one delicious possibility: they were fighting Androids 17 and 18. Oh joyous day! Looking over to the last human left alive in the city, he wondered if he should even take the time to kill this last one or just leave now. It was debatable how long a fight between the Androids and those to comrades of Goku's would last and, while he might not have the biological equivalent of a combat computer in his head like 17 and 18, the outcomes of the fights were far from certain. While 18 might be stronger than Xander, the Saiyan lacked many of the weaknesses his people had that could be exploited in battle and had **interesting** ideas when it came to using certain techniques. Piccolo he had fought firsthand and, when he compared the Namek's power and skills with the implanted knowledge of 17's design, he knew that a battle between the two was too close to call. With the outcomes in doubt, he decided he could not afford to take the chance that the heroes might emerge victorious.

"Consider yourself fortunate, human. Today you get to live." He said as he dropped the clothes that belonged to his last meal in this city, "I have bigger fish to fry!"

With those words he flew through the window and made for the two ki signatures he sensed with ever increasing speed. As he flew, he tried to identify the location the signals were coming from and he had to chuckle when his mind produced the name Red Ribbon Army HQ. It was then that he realised that this must have been the work of the Harris boy and that the Saiyan had chosen that location in order to hide something or someone. Perhaps this is what they'd meant when they'd revealed to him that Goku was still alive instead of dead, as the man had been known to be in the future he came from. If that was the case then the ki sensors installed in both 17 and 18 would have easily been able to track him to that location despite the shielding advantages that the mountain region provided. No doubt when the duo arrived looking for Goku, both Xander and Piccolo charged forward to defend their leader, despite the odds against them. That would work in his favour because if the two warriors were fighting a defensive battle, then his brother and sister-in-science would have a distinct advantage. Still, it wouldn't be enough to completely assure the digital duo's victory over their biological inferiors.

He increased his speed to compensate for the variables that existed which could lead to the destruction of the two he sought.

There was also the fact that the two of them were a fair distance away from one another. They were almost certainly out of line of sight with one another. That would make devouring both of them at the same time difficult, if not impossible. He would have no choice but to take them one at a time… or did he have no choice? It was true that if he went after one, there would likely be enough fireworks that the other would be alerted to the confrontation. This could result in the Android not present making a run for it, resulting in him being forced to search for the survivor, starting the whole mess all over again. However, if he somehow managed to arrange it so that the other Android was lured closer, tricked into trying something foolish like saving their sibling, then all would be well. If he timed it just right, he could devour one just as the other arrived and then make it a two-for-one deal. It didn't take him much time to come up with the basic plan but the real question though was which fight should he aim for in order to carry out the plan. It was impossible to know for certain who was fighting who specifically but he could make an educated guess based on the personalities. As far as the Androids were concerned, they wouldn't concern themselves too much with a simple Super Saiyan, as they'd already shown to all that they were capable of completely overpowering Vegeta. Android 17's personality profile indicated that he would not want to fight someone so similar to one already defeated by Android 18. So that meant that the male member of the duo would choose to fight the Namek, since he was the unknown quantity and thus a battle with Piccolo would be more 'fun'.

_That can only mean that it is Android 18 must be fighting Xander._ He thought as he got closer and closer to his prey, _If that is the case, then it is likely that there will soon be a funeral for the fool. Her last personality profile indicates a low tolerance for boredom and fatal annoyance at anything that fails to meet her expectations. A mere Super Saiyan won't keep her amused for long and when Harris outlives his usefulness, he's done for._

That still left the question of who he should head for in order to employ his plan to draw the other in. Which of the two cybernetic siblings was more likely to rush to the others aid when the death of the other was more than likely: the fun-loving 17 or the more practical and efficient 18? In the end he decided that he'd go after the pairing of Android 18 and the Saiyan warrior Xander Harris. He had to reasons for believing that this would be the more fruitful of the two possibilities. First there was the fact that, while superior to Vegeta in many ways, the court jester wasn't quite as strong as the new and improved Piccolo was. Since he knew now for a fact that he was more than powerful enough to defeat the Namek, beating the Super Saiyan would take no more than thirty seconds at the absolute most. The other reason was that he knew that Android 17's curiosity and arrogance would compel him to investigate the fight no matter how brief it turned out to be. Then, when the fool arrived, he would swat aside Piccolo who was sure to follow in a vain attempt to keep his former foe from being absorbed and finish both his quest and his evolution.

Altering his course accordingly, he let his mind freely imagine how things would proceed when he finally laid eyes on Android 18. This brought a smile to his face and compelled him to chuckle with glee at the glorious future he was approaching.

"Just wait for me, Android 17 and 18! I'm coming for you!!" He cried out, even though none but he could hear his words.

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_**The Ruins of the Red Ribbon Army HQ, Twenty Minutes Later, Tien's P.O.V **_

_I hope those two know what they're doing._ Tien thought as he used his ki sensing ability to keep track of the two fights occurring to the North and to the South of where he was.

It had been a little over twenty minutes since the two battles had begun and Piccolo had miraculously managed to keep his fight with Android 17 dead even. The fight could go either way and it would all come down to who made the biggest mistake first and be forced to deal with the consequences of that mistake. Considering how well he knew the lean, mean green machine, he didn't see a mistake as being very likely but, depending on who began to tire first, a slip up might be unavoidable. As far as Xander's fight against that deadly damsel, all he could tell was that the Saiyan wasn't being overwhelmed by the blonde bomber but that was about it. It was impossible to tell whether the explosions he saw coming from that direction were doing any damage to the Android but, considering how unfocused they were in any one spot, Goku's half brother could either be doing very good or very bad. It could be very good if it meant that Android 18 was on the run but, given how she managed to defeat Vegeta, this was highly unlikely even if Xander was unusually cunning in his use of ki blasts. It was more likely that the brutal blonde was merely playing with him, despite the Saiyan warrior's best efforts to blast her into a million pieces. In the end, while he was hoping for the best possible outcomes for both fights, he was unable to shake the anxiety that slithered through his body.

The only thing greater than the anxiety was the sinister whisper in his mind that this was where he'd be watching many of the fights from this day forward.

It was a whisper he did his best not to listen to, not because it was a lie but rather because it sounded all too true. It was something he'd thought of ever since he'd felt firsthand the power of a Super Saiyan. Back when he'd been on North Kai's world, he'd felt it when Goku had transformed for the first time on planet Namek and it had astounded him all the more when he realised that for him to be feeling it from so far away it had to be a staggering amount of power. All through the battles on Namek, he had seen sign after sign of his friends getting stronger but the increases had never been all that large, so he'd never felt as though it'd be impossible for him to catch up to them. All he'd need to do was train harder and he'd raise his own power up to their level sooner or later. When he felt the power of a Super Saiyan, though, he knew that a gap had been presented to him that he would not be able to overcome, even if he trained like a madman for the remainder of his natural life. It was like a mouse looking up at an elephant. Still, in the days, months and then years that followed his return to the world of the living, he never let go of the belief that he could still stand shoulder to shoulder with his friends when a threat to the planet appeared. Even when news of the Androids was revealed to them after the death of Frieza and King Kold, he still believed that he could help those he cared about, especially if he had three years to focus on training.

When the big day finally arrived, he felt that he'd truly reached a level of skill and power that would make sure that he didn't perish like his counterpart had in Trunks' timeline.

It had shook him more than he'd like to admit when he'd been shown how utterly inconsequential his hard work had been.

It had been when they'd caught up with Vegeta and the Androids that he'd gotten his first real glimpse of what they were up against. He'd had a bit of optimism when he'd seen the cocky Saiyan tear apart the fat android 19 and only became more confident when Piccolo completely dominated Gero in his Android form. When the Trunks of the future had arrived on the scene to tell them that the two that had shown up on the specified day at the stated time were not the dangerous digital duo fated to lay waste to the world, he'd still had confidence in their ability to triumph in the end. After all, if Gero considered his Android body and his partner to be his ultimate achievements, then that would mean that all of his previous creations would be weaker or somehow flawed. Even after the evil scientist had been killed by his own creations and survived a combined blast from Trunks and Xander, he'd been able to hold onto the idea that victory was still in the near future.

It had taken a confrontation with Android 17, lasting only five seconds and ending in him losing consciousness due to lack of air thanks to a choke hold placed on him, to change that outlook.

Waking up thanks to the help of Krillin and Xander, he'd had no choice but to realise that there was no way he would be able to make a dent in the Androids as he was. He tried to brush off his crushing defeat by saying that he'd underestimated them or that beating them would simply require a more strategic approach than a frontal assault, but deep down he knew the truth. Nevertheless, he didn't stop trying to help out and added his strength to the rest of the team when they tried desperately to stop Cell from killing any more innocent people.

Now, though, fate had decided that they needed to deal with the three Androids, 16, 17 and 18, before they could resume their quest to destroy Cell.

While not much better, this might actually be the best situation of the lot since, by destroying 17 and 18, they could effectively prevent Cell from ever attaining his perfect form. They might not know what that perfect form was or how powerful it'd be, but even if it was simply combining the power levels of the three of them into one form, it'd be terrible enough indeed.

He'd just have to hope that Xander could hold out against 18 until Piccolo finished off 17 because then the two of them could double team the murderous mechanoid, finishing them off easily.

"This is terrible! Being on the sidelines is harder than actually fighting!" Krillin exclaimed as smoke began to rise from where Piccolo and Android 17 were fighting, "I can't take it! Especially with the smoke and explosions and the whole shebang happening right in front of our faces! Am I the only one this is getting to or what?!"

"No way!" He replied feeling just as the bald guy did about sitting on the bench like this, "I'm going crazy! Dammit! C'mon you guys there's got to be something we can do!"

"Look! We have our orders from Piccolo. We have to stick to the plan." Yamcha said, being the voice of reason oddly enough, "It's for Piccolo and Xander's safety as well as our own. If any of those Androids managed to get their hands on one of us, they'll use us against leverage against our friends."

He didn't like to think about it like that, but there was no arguing with the logic, even if a large part of his soul was compelling him to dive into battle regardless of the consequences. He was about to put in his two cents when his ki senses picked up a dark and foul ki signature approaching at high speed. He knew the others could feel it as well but Krillin was the first one to actually voice what he sensed for all to hear.

"It's horrible you guys! We got more bad news on the way!" Krillin declared with fear growing in his voice, "It's Cell!"

It took him a minute to focus his ki sense more but when he did he found it all too easy to identify the sickening signature that he was detecting as Dr. Gero's latest creation. He'd gotten a feel for it a few times during the search for that Monster but never long enough to do more than get a good feel for it before it vanished.

"Oh man! This is bad news you guys!" Yamcha said as he looked in the direction the signal was coming from, "That thing must have picked up on Piccolo and Xander fighting. It makes perfect sense! If he can't track the Androids any better than we can then it makes sense that he'd keep an eye out for when one of us pumped up our power level high enough!"

"Man! Talk about a no win scenario!" Krillin said as the truth sunk into all their heads, "If we raise our power levels we attract Cell but if we don't power up we stand no chance of beating the Androids!"

"It feels like Cell's heading for Xander's position more than Piccolo's." He said as he tried to match what he was feeling to a mental map of the world, "At the rate he's going, it won't take him more than three minutes to get there."

"Definitely. He might even get there earlier if he can up his speed any." Yamcha said in agreement with the ETA estimate.

Just as they were about to continue nailing down the facts of the situation the satellite phone that Chi-Chi had left behind for them rang. A bit puzzled, he briskly walked back inside and picked up the handset.

"Hello?" He said not knowing who was calling them or knew the number for this phone.

"Tien! Great news! I've managed to use the plans Krillin brought me to make a remote control that can shut down the Androids completely." Came Bulma's voice from the speaker part of the phone's handset.

"Great, but we're going to need it ASAP!" He said feeling a ray of hope shine down on his troubled soul, "Piccolo and Xander are fighting the Androids right now and Cell is on his way here as we speak!"

"Right! I'm on my way!" Bulma said with her typical determination to do her part for the team before hanging up.

"Looks like we got this half won, guys!" Krllin said with increased hope before his mood took a downward spiral all over again, "But she'll never get here before Cell does! I got to fly and hope that I can get to her faster than she can get to us so we can meet up faster!"

With those words the bald warrior took to the sky before igniting his ki field and shooting off in the direction of Capsule Corp HQ. Hopefully Bulma would be taking the most direct route otherwise they could miss each other entirely and then it'd take the better part of an hour for the Breifs daughter to get here. That would be way to late to be of any good. Looking back and forth between the two battlefields, Tien found himself praying for one to finish up sooner rather than later and the other to last as long as possible so that help could arrive.

_Just hold on Xander!!_ He thought willing this sentiment to reach the young Saiyan warrior, _Keep Cell busy for as long as possible!_

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**The Mountains to the South of the Ruins of the Red Ribbon Army HQ, **_

_**Two and a Half Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I don't know whether to be happy or insulted that this bitch bot is toying with me!_ Xander thought as he took advantage of the breather the Android was giving him, _Either way I'm starting to feel a little worn down._

They'd been going at it for over twenty minutes and, while he'd been known to spar with Vegeta and Goku for longer, he'd never really had to go all out with them, or at least never with Goku. Vegeta, of course, kept pushing him during their training sessions and never accepted any sort of excuses like he was completely wiped or needed a breather. According to the Prick of all Saiyans, he was a member of a great and mighty race and shouldn't be a slave to his own body's weaknesses. Given the way that blowhard went on and on, you'd think that dying of exhaustion wouldn't be a good enough reason to give up training. In any case, fighting Android 18 was much different from the training sessions since, even going all out like he was, he still hadn't come any closer to beating her than in the beginning. Not that he'd expected to beat her when he got suckered into the duel, but he'd been hoping that he'd last until Piccolo managed to compress Android 17 into a metal cube. If the quick stretching of his ki senses was accurate, though, the Namek was having a slow time of beating the other mechanical monster and likely wouldn't win anytime soon. In fact he wouldn't be surprised if the fight lasted another hour or so before a winner was decided.

He wasn't sure he could last that long.

"Need to take a nap?" Android 18 asked in a mocking tone of voice as she descended slowly a few meters ahead of him.

"Nope. Need a shower?" He asked with equal mocking as he pointed out that she was a bit dirtied up.

"Maybe later. Maybe you'd like to join me and scrub my back?" She asked with a voice that sent a mix of shivers and shock through his body.

The shivers came from the images that sprang forth in his mind of a naked Android 18 in the shower, beckoning him to join her. It was **NOT** helping with his efforts to keep his feelings towards the Android strictly of an enemy-based nature. Ever since he realised he had 18 on the brain, he'd done everything he could to toss those images and thoughts into a Fort Knox-sized safe and weld the door shut before encasing it in cement. He'd thought it had worked but, the instant he'd laid eyes on her outside of the building they'd been living out of for the last couple of days, it was like the cement square was falling a part one crack at a time. Now, with that last comment, a third of the cement encasing the safe had fallen off and the section of the safe exposed looked like a single finger push could break through it.

The shock came both from the fact that the comment came out of the blue and because the second his jaw dropped, she was there to slam it shut with a thundering uppercut. He was just thankful a couple of seconds later when his head cleared that there didn't seem to be any real damage to his teeth, despite the pain he was feeling in the area he was hit. Manipulating his ki to right himself and then slow down to a stable hovering state, he looked back to see the truly amused Android 18 looking up at him from her position beneath him. Though whether she was smiling because she'd managed to shock him into dropping his guard or that he'd revealed how he felt about her, he didn't know. Probably the former because he seriously doubted that Gero would have allowed his creations to feel things that might interfere with the success of their mission.

Growling with anger at himself and chastising himself for letting his own mental issues interfere with his fighting abilities, he was about to dive back down and wipe the smirk off of Android 18's face when an energy signature exploded across his senses. Shocked once more but for more rational reasons, he looked to his right and saw, to his horror, that Mr. Murphy and the Harris luck had conspired against him once again. Hovering five hundred yards away with arms crossed smugly across chest shaped carapace was none other than the abomination known as Cell.

"So sorry for interrupting this **fascinating** discussion, but I'm afraid that you have an urgent appointment with destiny, Android 18." Cell said with faux politeness as he began to float towards them.

It took him less time than it would take someone to ask the question 'what is he doing here' to figure out the answer to that very inquiry. He was such a FOOL! He should have known that Piccolo and him powering up would have been like fireworks sized signal flares to this creature and even Larry could have put together the pieces to figure out what was going on. BLAST IT ALL TO HELL!! Now he had to do all he could to keep Cell away from Android 18 and hope that Piccolo picked up on the monster's energy signal before too long. Moving in a blur of motion he immediately placed himself between Cell and the blonde bombshell that had moments ago injected his imagination with fresh images.

"You'll get your hands on her over my dead body, Cell!!" He said before he put all his will into powering himself back up to where he'd been at the beginning of his fight with 18.

"Silly man. Do you really think that you stand a chance against me?" Cell asked in a half bored tone of voice, "You may have been a match for me before but things have changed since we first met. Allow me to demonstrate. HHHAAAAHHH!!!"

_This is __**SO**__ not of the good!_ He thought as his ki senses let him know all to clearly that the bug themed killing machine in front of him was getting stronger and stronger by the second.

Now he knew that increasing one's ki wasn't a new trick and he'd sort of figured that Cell hadn't shown them all he could do the last time, but this was ridiculous. The increase in power was happening with such great speed and to such a great degree that it seemed to go on forever, but it was as the mad monster began to cackle that he picked up on something else that made matters even worse. He could **feel** echoes of different ki signatures mixed in with Cell's own foul signal and they were staggering in number. Easily in the thousands, he could come to no other conclusion than the fact that he was sensing the remnants of the various innocent people the beast had consumed in his efforts to get stronger. It was almost beyond comprehension how much stronger Gero's techno-organic creation now was and he could safely say that the creature was a league above both him **AND** Android 18 in terms of power. It was like he was standing before a Super Saiyan for the first time all over again and he very much doubted that it'd end as amicably as it had with Goku. His mind raced to figure out a way to turn things around or at least slow Cell down until Piccolo could get his scaly green butt over to help him, but every idea he came up with was shot down for one simple reason: he wasn't strong enough. It was then that he came up with a truly desperate plan that could just as easily backfire on him if he wasn't careful.

_Not like I have any other options at the moment!_ He thought sarcastically as he prepared for the most insane plan he'd ever concocted.

With a burst of instant transmission he teleported himself behind Cell and, with as much strength as he could muster, delivered an axe kick to Cell's head, sending the monster plummeting to the ground. With all the speed he could muster he followed the beast down while at the same time sending energy ball after energy ball hurtling towards the creature's fall form. His plan hinged on the point of getting Cell out of the air and onto firm ground for at least ten seconds so he couldn't take any chances in his efforts to keep the monster winded as well as disoriented. It was with a modicum of satisfaction that he saw the desired impact of the maniacal creature into the cold, unforgiving stone of the mountain below. However he wasn't done quite yet and raised both hands above his head before gathering energy there as quickly as possible. Then, with another burst of instant transmission, he appeared less than thirty feet away from the impact point before acting.

"MASENKO-**HA**!!"

A massive explosion ripped through the mountain range, sending rock flying and turning any snow that might have been there into superheated steam. Had it not been for the protection of his ki field, he'd likely have been momentarily distracted by all the debris flying through the air but, even though he knew he'd scored a direct hit, he knew that Cell was not defeated. His attack had been executed for another reason aside from keeping Cell down on the ground for the desired period of time: it also served as a means of getting the attention of Piccolo and the others. Even with his crazy plan, he knew he couldn't hope to defeat Cell at his present level but it might be enough to keep the monster distracted long enough to allow the cavalry to arrive.

Now, though, was the time for him to enact the final part of his plan.

God he hoped this worked!!

Following the steps he'd been given by Vegeta, he channelled the energy within him to his arm but there he began to alter the attributes of that energy to what he desired. It was so hard to get it done at such a high rate of speed, but he had no choice. Once he was satisfied that he'd made all the changes he needed, he allowed the energy to manifest itself in his hand as a glowing light blue sphere before tossing it high into the air. As soon as he was sure it was at the required altitude, he clenched his fists, causing the sphere to activate and bathing the entire area in light that had only one other counterpart: moonlight.

Specifically, the light of a full moon.

Letting his eyes soak in the light, he could feel as the gland in his tail began to do its work, causing his heart to pump harder and his body to begin changing. The hair on his body began to grow and thicken. His flesh and bones began to enlarge at a staggering rate and his skull began to take on distinctly ape-like characteristics. He could feel the red rage that came with this transformation, the fury that made conscious thought all but impossible, but he grasped tightly the lessons Vegeta had pounded the techniques as Saiyan must know in order to retain their rational mind. It was much more difficult than during his training in space with Vegeta but he supposed that was one of the side effects of doing it while in his Super Saiyan form. His aggressiveness and impulsive nature increased as a Super Saiyan but, again, with proper training he was able to keep the emotional baggage that came with the transformation from controlling him too much. Combining the raw, primal rage of the Saiyan Ape Ōzaru with the increased aggressiveness and control issues of a Super Saiyan, you had an internal fight just as dangerous as the one about to begin on the outside. As he sensed amidst the storm within him the transformation completing itself, he willed his body to follow his conscious mind that still existed and, for the moment, had dominance over the rest. Looking down, he could now see through the red haze of his eyes Cell looking up at him with the combined arrogance of all the beings that made up his being.

"YOU NOT SMILE FOR LONG!!"

Bringing up his huge fist, he brought it down as fast as he could, knowing at the back of his mind that one of the major weaknesses of this strategy: his increased size came at the cost of speed. He might now be strong enough to match Cell but that wouldn't mean much if he couldn't actually score a hit on the bug man. However, he'd known this ahead of time but it didn't affect his overall strategy since it wasn't his objective to defeat Cell, merely to distract him until reinforcements could arrive. He knew this presented the risk of destroying Android 18 in the process but, considering what would've happen if he hadn't gone this route, it was the only way.

As he'd sort of predicted (kinda hard to have deep thoughts when you've got so much on your mind), Cell had little trouble evading his fist and the instinctive tail swipe that he unconsciously followed up with. This almost got him angrier than he could manage but he kept his goal firmly in front of his mind's eye to reinforce his efforts to stay in control. If he allowed himself to devolve into a berserker mindset, he'd be utterly useless as well as a potential danger to his comrades, given how unlikely it was his primitive mindset would care where its attacks landed.

"An admirable attempt, Saiyan. However you will not keep me from completing my evolution." Cell said as the monster casually avoided the giant ape's attacks.

"WANNA BET!?" he roared back as he opened his snout and unleashed the most potent weapon in his transformed state's arsenal.

The mouth energy wave.

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_**Five Minute Later, The Mountains South of the Ruins of the Red Ribbon Army HQ**_

_**Android 18's P.O.V**_

_This is insane! What is going on!?!_ Android 18 thought as she once again was prevented from leaving the immediate area by Xander and the creature the Saiyan called Cell.

It wasn't that they were actively getting in her way, per se, but rather their attempts at obliterating one another made leaving by land or by air extremely risky. If it wasn't a massive energy blast from one, it was a successful physical attack from the other that somehow forced her to withdraw deeper into the established battlefield rather than successfully crossing its borders. Looking back at the battling duo, she was both frightened and yet glad at the awesome power that Xander now possessed in his transformed state. It was easily ten times the previous level he'd used when he had fought her earlier but, as titanic as his strength was now, he did not appear to possess the same skill level as before. All of his moves, from physical blows to ki attacks, were of the most basic variety with nothing being thought through more than three or four moves in advance. While not completely ineffective against Cell as evidenced by the two times thus far that the monster had successfully been knocked to the ground, that was more due to the bug-like creature's arrogance than the Saiyan ape's skill. It was at best, though, a stalling effort.

Cell seemed interested in challenging the power of the Saiyan's giant ape form for the time being but it was anyone's guess how long that interest would last.

There was also the fact that Xander was restricting the use of ki blasts to when there was no risk of the blast burrowing too deep into the Earth itself. If it hit a mountain or went off into the atmosphere then that was fine, but Cell had figured out this as well and was purposefully keeping his back to the ground below. This both helped and hurt the creature because, by restricting his physical movements the way Xander was limiting his energy attacks, he was leaving himself more prone to the fists, feet and tail of the Saiyan ape.

In her own case, though, despite her superior speed, agility and manoeuvrability, she was unable to escape to a safer locale, resulting in an almost continual game of dodgeball as she tried her best to stay alive. Despite having a power level of thirty-five million. all of which she could divert into speed if necessary. the two males fighting before her made that barely enough to keep her unharmed. She had to wonder how long she'd last at the rate things were going.

"Well. this has been an interesting challenge. I must say." Cell said as he continued to evade the blows from the great ape, "but now it is time to finish things so that I may proceed with the completion of my primary evolution. DESTRUCTO DISK!!"

The creature brought his right hand over his head and generated a golden sphere that almost immediately flattened into a razor sharp energy disk. Xander Ape apparently possessed a rational enough mind to recognise the threat because he became almost frantic in his efforts to keep the monster from using the technique developed by the human Krillin. In the end, though, Cell proved to be too fast and, within three missed swings by the giant Saiyan, the disc was thrown and hit its mark perfectly. Seconds later the hairy tail of the giant ape fell to the ground, thrashing as it went as random nerves fired within it. The effect this injury had on Xander, though, was much greater though for, with a roar of defiance, as though trying to prevent the reversion with sheer strength of will, the Saiyan that had caught her attention shrank back to his normal size and appearance. There were signs of fatigue that, while not quite at exhaustion levels, it was clear it would not take much from Cell to defeat him now. Her sensors showed that his power level was dropping rapidly and would soon drop beneath what her systems had estimated were the minimum levels of the Super Saiyan state. Once that happened, he would likely revert back to his pre-powered up state and, when that happened, he would die since it was unlikely that he would stop challenging Cell despite the illogical nature of further defiance.

"Much better." Cell said in smug satisfaction at the odds tilting heavily in his favour, "Now why don't you step aside so I can proceed with my business."

"I already told you: You'll get your hands on her over my dead body, Cell!!" Xander growled as he took up a more solid fighting stance.

"As you wish," Cell said before vanishing from his previous position and reappearing right in front of Xander.

Before Xander could do anything at all, Cell delivered a devastating blow to the Saiyan's stomach that caused the object of her fixation to fold over on the arm used. Then, before a counterattack could even be considered, the beast withdrew the hand and delivered a double axe handle to the young Saiyan's back, sending him hurtling towards the ground below. Even she had to wince at the impact and she wasn't the one that had been sent into the rubble produced by the battle.

_I should probably use this chance to get out of here. _She thought as she watched Cell begin to float down to Xander's impact point, _I know now that I do not possess the power necessary to defeat Cell and, unlike Xander, I'm not stupid enough to fight losing battles._

It was the perfectly logical thing to do, given what she'd seen in the past ten minutes. After all she had her mission to kill Goku and she couldn't very well do that if she was scrap metal. Then again, if this Cell creature was determined to come after her, it might be to her benefit to have Xander around to help her fight the freak off. It was not of course in Gero's files that Saiyans underwent a significant power increase after recovering from serious injuries. If she ensured that he survived this encounter with Cell, a senzu bean would make short work of his injuries, allowing him to recover at an accelerated pace and his Saiyan physiology would increase his strength accordingly. How much of a power increase would depend on the severity of the injuries of course but she didn't want to take the risk of a fatal injury being struck while she measured the odds.

_I must have blown a circuit!_ She thought as she flew down to stop Cell from delivering the final blow, _Xander owes me big for this and he better believe I'm going to make him work it __**ALL**__ off!_

Bringing up her fist to deliver the strongest blow she was capable of, she was just crossing the threshold for close quarters combat when, out of nowhere, she was struck from the side by a thick blur. Whatever it was it was powerful enough to knock her out of the air and to the ground hard enough to crack the stone beneath her a fair bit. It was a few seconds later that she found out that it had been Cell's tail that had knocked her from the sky with such incredible force.

"I will get to you in a moment, 18. First I must deal with this annoyance." Cell said as he reached down to grasp the front of Xander's shirt and pull the pained Saiyan off the ground, "It is time to bring this court jester's act to a close once and for all. Goodbye, Saiyan!"

With feeling that she had not expected, she tried to get back to her feet so that she could do **s****omething** to intervene but her combat computer already knew what she was just coming to realise.

She would never get there in time to stop Cell from killing Xander.


	15. A Waning Flicker of Hope

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They all belong to their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write for my own personal enjoyment and for those that enjoy reading my work.

* * *

_**Five Minutes Earlier, Piccolo's P.O.V**_

_This is not going to be as easy as I'd hoped!_ Piccolo thought as he continued to match Android 17 blow for blow, _I have to finish this quickly and go help Xander!_

It had been over twenty minutes ago that his fight with the male android had begun and, every time that he had thought he'd gained enough momentum to win, the glorified toaster raised his game another level. Still, it was comforting to know that the gap between his power level and that of the dark haired robot wasn't as big as it had been before. Where he'd been completely outclassed by the creations of Dr. Gero, he could now safely say that he was so even with them that it would be skill rather than power that would determine the outcome of this fight. The bad part, though, was that his opponent was no slouch in the skill department either, making the end of this fight something that would be long in coming.

That wasn't good.

While he hadn't had many chances to sense how Xander was doing, he knew it wasn't possible that the young man was faring as well as he was against his artificial adversary. In that battle it was a difference of power and speed that would cause the end of the battle to be decided. The brother of Goku might have sufficient skill on his side but it would only help him delay his defeat rather than prevent it all together. He had no doubt that the warrior who'd arrived in their dimension three years ago would give it his all but sometimes determination and willpower were not enough against overwhelming power. He had to end this fight as soon as he could so he could go to the newest Z fighter's aid before the mechanical mistress wound up killing someone he did know rather than some unknown innocent.

With that in mind, he began to strategically plan his moves so that they would begin to chip away at his enemy's defences so that they'd be weak enough for a solid attack to break through, thus ending the fight. However, before he got too far into his plan, his ki senses picked up a surging power level and it was such an increasing level of energy that it hit him like a punch from Goku. He didn't need to think for more than a second to determine who was responsible and it made him wonder just how desperate Xander had to be to do something like this. He knew that this wasn't a normal increase for the young man, as he had a fairly good idea of where the Saiyan was in terms of the maximum power output. This could only mean that the youth was trying something reckless and potentially dangerous to himself in order to turn the tide of battle against Android 18. It was only when his sensitive ears picked up the all too familiar roar of an Saiyan Ōzaru echoing through the air around him that he knew that his fellow fighter had done. A dangerous move but one that might buy Vegeta's cousin a little more time and perhaps if the female android got careless a mouth blast could very well destroy her.

It was as he directed his senses towards the teenage Saiyan that he sensed something that had him stunned senseless.

CELL!

Cell was in the mountains less than two football fields away from where Xander's ten times his Super Saiyan maximum power signal was located!

His mind raced through the various facts it had and, when the pattern finally emerged, he wanted to rip his own head off at his stupidity. He had been so focused on defeating Android 17 that he'd failed to take into account the fact that raising his power level might attract the attention of the organic android. IDIOT! This was the sort of mistake that Yamcha or Vegeta would make! He was better than them! Now it became all too urgent that he break off his fight with 17 and make for Xander's location as quickly as he could. While he didn't believe that Android 18 would team up with the genetic amalgamation, he also didn't think that the fusion of the fiercest fighters on the planet would toy with his adversary for quite as long as the woman would.

Not with one of his primary objectives easily within his reach.

And when Xander fell, Cell would have a clear path to one half of the pair the monster needed in order to order to complete his evolution.

A punch to the jaw knocked him out of his contemplation and made him realise that he had to take things one step at a time starting with the obstacle right in front of him.

"I know you fleshy types care about one another, Piccolo, but you should know that it's not safe to look away from me like that." Android 17 said arrogantly even as the Namek recovered.

_He's right but I'm surprised he's not more concerned about his partner. _He thought as he revved up his power level and charged the enemy in front of him, _He has to be able to sense Xander's power increase._

He could only presume that the automaton in front of him was supremely confident in his female friend's ability to not only handle the giant ape, but also defeat it. That led to another question about why 17 couldn't sense Cell since the insect-like abomination's power level was easily perceivable as well. Perhaps a cloaking mechanism meant to conceal the creature's power signature from it's targets? Maybe. A more likely possibility, though, was that Android 17 had no clue who Cell was and therefore did not count the crime against nature a threat. Odd that Gero wouldn't let all three of his creations, three who were designed to become one, know who the others were and what the overall plan was. Still, it could have been simple paranoia on the good doctor's part wherein he feared that 17 or 18 might oppose the fusion and so left them clueless. This would provide Cell with the element of surprise and added to the advantage of knowing his siblings' inner workings extensively would make the merger far more likely to succeed. In any case, it meant that the odds of him being able to convince his opponent that his femme fatale friend's dire predicament were slim indeed. After all, how do you convince an enemy that his comrade is about to get devoured by someone they know nothing about?

You couldn't without evidence or the backing of someone 17 trusted.

Delivering a series of attacks to draw his foe's enemies away from the body seemed to be working and so, with a final three move combo meant to distract more than do damage, he sent forth a palm thrust with the intention of disabling his foe long enough for him to get away. When the blow hit, he saw all the proof he needed that his foe would be suitably, if temporarily, neutralized for the next few minutes so he could go to where he needed to be. Diverting most of his ki to speed, he wasted no time heading for the battle he knew Xander would lose without help. As he closed the distance, he could tell that while not the berserker that Gohan or Goku tended to be when they transformed, there was little skill involved in the giant ape's movements. Nothing that surpassed the level of bar room brawler was being used and the energy blasts were predictable even from this distance. Cell wouldn't have any trouble in evading the attacks and was likely only allowing the farce of a fight to continue because it was amusing.

Given the evil of the beings that made up Cell's body, he doubted that the monster would stay amused for very long.

When the amusement ended, if he wasn't there, it would mean the end of Xander.

It was just as he flew past the halfway point between where he'd been and where he wanted to be that two things happened that were not good. The first was the fact that both Androids, 16 and 17, were catching up to him rapidly from behind and could possibly intercept him before he reached his destination. The other was the fact that Xander was letting out a roar of defiance and desperation that gave him all the warning he needed to the fact that his tail had been cut off. This was made visible when he watched the great ape begin to shrink and the youth's power level began to drop back down to it's more normal level. At least as normal as it ever got when you were talking about Super Saiyans. Deciding that he had to speed up both for what was behind him and ahead of him, he channelled more ki into flying than he had before. So much more that if either of the two androids pursuing him fired a blast at him it would likely do some serious damage without his power field protecting him.

It was a risk he'd have to take.

It turned out to be a good move indeed as he arrived on the scene he beheld a sight that brought one of his worst fears to the surface. Hanging limp with Cell's right hand wrapped around his throat was Xander and, while his ki senses did say that the teenager was alive, he could also tell that the fighter wouldn't be able to block what was no doubt coming. With reckless determination he'd employed only a handful of times, he built up the pressure in his body and then released it all at once to give him a burst of speed that allow him to cross the distance in the blink of an eye. Putting all he had into a roundhouse kick, he successfully connected, sending the bug monster flying away and reflexively letting go of his prey. Quickly catching his comrade, he used another burst of speed to his fellow fighter to the ground below.

Looking back up at those still airborne, he saw with no surprise that Cell had recovered and was now taking in the new scene involving the new arrivals. 17 and 16 also seemed to be in the middle of taking in their new circumstances, so he chose to use this time to ascertain if Xander would be able to help him fighting.

"You still with us?" he asked as he began to see signs of consciousness from the kid.

"Barely…don't ask me how, though." Xander replied with a groan as he opened his eyes, "How bad have things gotten?"

"All of the androids are here along with Cell." He replied deciding not to mince words needlessly.

"Then it's pretty much countdown to doomsday then." Xander said as he looked up to see the desperate scene himself, "Got a plan?"

"Other than stay alive and try to keep Cell from absorbing the androids? Nope." He said grimly as he honestly couldn't think of a plan to win the day for them.

"Simple. Direct. I like it!" Xander said as though he'd been told the best news ever, "Just give me a minute or two to get my second wind and I'll be ready to go."

_That better be a short minute because I don't know if we have much more than that._ He thought looking back up to the trio that hovered above.

* * *

_**Android 17's P.O.V, Same Time**_

_Well isn't this an odd turn of events._ Android 17 thought as he took in the odd scene before him.

He had, for a moment, thought the Namek a coward when he flew away earlier but, seeing the state of things before him, he rather approved of the change of venue. Not only did it look like 18 had successfully beaten the unknown Saiyan into a bruised and battered mess, but it looked like they had another unknown added to the fun. It was a rather hideous creature that resemble a bug more than anything else but walked upright like a human. Out of curiosity he used his sensors to get a reading on the creature and was annoyed to find that they were telling him that the monster might actually be stronger than him by quite a bit. This, of course, was ridiculous because no mere flesh and blood entity could possibly match him in power. He could only presume that something in his fight with Piccolo had had been knocked loose and was causing his sensors to give incorrect readings. Fortunately that old fossil Gero had foreseen such minor battle damage and had incorporated an internal repair system. The system couldn't handle serious injuries like a lost limb or the destruction of a major component, but he very much doubted he'd ever have to worry about such things. While Piccolo had given him a better fight than he'd even thought possible, the green man had been struggling those last few minutes of fighting. It would have been, at best, another twenty minutes before he would have been in perfect position to deal the deathblow.

Now, though, it looked like he'd have a choice of opponents.

"So what's the deal here, 18?" He asked, deciding to see how much his cybernetic sibling had managed to find out, "Who, or should I say **what, **is this green thing that interrupted your fight with the Saiyan?"

"He calls himself Cell and apparently we have something to do with his primary evolution." 18 replied, sounding oddly worried about the situation.

"Primary evolution? What does that mean?" He asked, not understanding what the creature could mean by that beyond the literal meanings of the two words either separately or together.

"It means, dear 17, that like you I, too, am a creation of Dr. Gero," Cell explained with a smug arrogance that was annoying, "In fact he designed the three of us specifically with a single purpose in mind: to join together to create the ultimate warrior. The fact that you and 18 must die for this ultimate being to be born is a mere… formality."

He wanted to dismiss this abomination's ramblings as just that, nonsense, but he knew that it was most likely the truth. Gero had never been satisfied with the strength of his creations and always sought new ways to make the next model of android even stronger than those that came before. Ever during the times in which the good doctor experimented on the two of them, he could recall the rickety old fool working either on blueprints or a notepad while he waited for a process to finish. While he could not recall anything named Cell being worked on there was a lot that his mind had blocked out due to the sheer trauma of what he'd been put through. Still, he refused to let anyone, much less this filthy creature, see the growing concern that was rising in his mind.

"Well as much as I'd hate to stand in the way of progress, I'm afraid that I've been having far too much fun living so I'm afraid that you'll have a long wait before I decide to just give up." He said with his voice dripping with sarcasm as he acted like the creature was beneath his notice.

"Oh, how I wish I could accommodate you 17, but sadly I've waited quite long enough to complete my evolution and I won't wait one moment longer." Cell stated starting out polite before dropping to a decidedly more threatening tone, "Prepare yourselves, 17 and 18!! You're mine!"

Even though he'd known that the creature was about to attack, he had been completely unprepared for the speed and strength difference between the two of them. With speed that was almost beyond his optical sensors' ability to follow, the big bug crossed the distance that existed in the blink of an eye. Then, with power that almost breached his armor plated internal systems, Cell struck him, sending him shooting towards the ground below. So shocked by the blow he almost failed to break his own fall in time but, with the strength of his desire to live, he managed to right himself. He still impacted on the shattered remains of a mountain but that was better than landing on his back or, worse yet, his head. Looking back up, he could see the monster looking to follow up on his initial assault but this time he'd find a rather warm welcome.

In fact it would be downright **hot**.

"YAAAHHH!" he yelled as he began to unleash a storm of ki comets at the oncoming threat.

No one comet had the power to defeat the monster but it should have been sufficient to halt the abomination's advance as well as make Cell more cautious. That, hopefully, would give him the time he needed to come up with a proper strategy to defeat the green glitter bug. He knew he **could** ask either 16 or 18 to help him but that would be seen as a sign of weakness. He refused to be weak, either literally or in how others perceived him!

The sky lit up in front of him, obscuring his visual lock on his foul foe, but that could only mean that a large number of the comets had successfully impacted on the creature. A good thing for him as his internal combat computer was about a third of the way in devising an effective strategy for defeating someone with this big an advantage over him.

He just needed to last a little while longer.

Deciding to take advantage of what was no doubt mutual loss of visual contact, he immediately employed some speed of his own to loop around the giant bug man. Depending on whether or not Cell a means of detecting artificially generated energy along with the biological kind, there was a good chance he could launch a sneak attack as soon as the moment was right. With his sensors letting him know precisely where his enemy was, he prepared to put the strategy his combat computer had just managed to provide him with. It was centered on delivering a serious of high impact blows designed to damage key parts of the body in the hopes of drastically reducing Cell's mobility. From there he could deliver the killing blow in true superior fashion.

Seeing the first signs of green and a tail, he charged forward with all the speed he could manage, bringing his right fist back as he went to deliver the first of six blows. With determination in his mind, he threw the punch at where he believed the spine to be but he did not wait to take some satisfaction in the attack. Grabbing a hold of the creature's right wing, he executed a vicious front kick that bent the limb in two before doing the same to the other one. Then, while the satisfying cries of pain filled the air, he brought himself in front of Cell using the motion to permit him to deliver a devastating knee thrust to the black triangle that was at the center of the creature's chest. While he didn't feel the crack of broken bone, there was no way that serious damage was not done to the front of the lab experiment's torso. Then, turning around, he placed one foot on either of Cell's knees and then, grabbing the creature's ankles, he evenly distributed his power between speed and strength as he propelled the two of them downwards. He could feel Gero's lab experiment beginning to fight through the pain but it was too little too late. With a speed superior to anything on the planet, they impacted on the ground below and, just like he'd hoped, he felt the legs of the monster snap. Pushing off the ground and into the air, he gathered the power he prepared to deliver the final blow that would end this fight once and for all.

"Give my regards to **Hell,** Cell!" he yelled before throwing his hands forward. "PHOTON FLASH!!"

With that cry, he shot out a blast of blue energy and watched as it detonated on his enemy with force similar to a small yield nuclear bomb. Looking at the impact point and the area around it, he watched for any sign that the creature had somehow managed to evade the worst of the blast but saw nothing to indicate the movement of a living creature.

He let himself smile now, the smile of the victorious, as this served as proof for him that his attacks had done their damage and defeated the creature known as Cell.

_Well, he wasn't so tough._ He thought confidently as he began to turn away from his defeated enemy, _He had some power but nowhere near the intelligence needed to be my superior!_

His confidence shattered, though, when he heard a familiar chuckling coming from above him and with all speed he looked up to find something that shouldn't have been possible. Hovering about thirty feet above him, with arms crossed over his chest, was the very being he was sure he'd blown into the next world with an energy blast not ten seconds ago. It was **not** possible! He'd felt the blows connect! There was no way that someone could take all those hits then show up mere moments later without a single scratch on their body.

"An admirable attempt, 17. Truly, had I not been prepared for your assault, I'd be the one down there rather than one of my clones." Cell said with mocking respect for what had just transpired.

It was the last word in the abomination's statement that gave him the clue he needed to understand what had happened. Sometime during the time when he'd lost sight of the creature in the smoke that had been produced by the detonation of his energy barrage the freak had used Tien Shinhan's multi-form technique. The technique allowed the used to create literal physical clones of himself that could act on their own without any direction by the original. Fortunately there was a bright point to this discovery.

"You're a tricky little bug, Cell, but you screwed up." He said with some restored confidence, "By using Tien Shinhan's Multi-Form technique you've cut your power level in half since it divides the user's power equally between the clones. I'd say things are looking up for me."

"You would think that, eh, 17?" Cell asked rhetorically with what might be a grin on the thing's face, "However, unlike the others who use this technique, I can decide just how much energy I want to give to my clones. Just so you know, I only placed a tenth of my strength in the clone you bested."

A tenth of his power!?!

"Now feel what I still possess!" Cell yelled before a golden ki field erupted around him and he vanished from sight.

Knowing what was to come, he immediately raised the energy field he'd employed to protect himself against one of Piccolo's more dangerous energy attacks.

It only took the edge off of the kick that pierced the protective field and hit him in the stomach so hard that his systems stalled for half a second. The fact that they'd been stalled at all did not bode well since Gero had designed both him and his 'sibling' to be able to take the strongest blows Goku was capable of and feel nothing. He should have felt nothing! The kick shouldn't have pierced his barrier! Yet instead he was being hit as though he were no more powerful than the weakest of Goku's allies!

It was intolerable to him!

Yet even as his systems snapped back to normal operating parameters, he was dealt a devastating uppercut to the jaw that felt like it was only just under the strength level needed to crack it. Only peripherally aware of rising higher into the air as his systems worked to correct themselves and his organic components, the only coherent word in his mind was 'NO'. The same defiance that had led him to try and escape the control of Gero the first time, the one that had succeeded in ending the old man's life, flared within him demanding that he not surrender no matter what. Once again, though, just as he regained his senses and righted himself, Cell appeared in front of him but did not attack immediately as he would have had their positions been reversed.

"I know how humiliating this must be for you, 17. You who were so **proud** of the power you possessed to be batted around like a mouse by a playful cat." Cell said with sympathy that was **almost** believable, "Why not end this useless resistance and submit to me? Become a part of something greater than yourself?"

"Maybe because I like my life just the way it is and don't think that becoming part of you is such a great thing!" he replied refusing, to even consider the thing's offer.

"Such a pity. I so hate to have to deal with dented tin cans but you leave me little choice." Cell said shaking his head in disappointment.

"Deal with **this** then!" He declared as he flicked his earring with one finger.

Feeling his internal power source raise itself even higher, he knew he'd have to finish this fight quickly if he wanted to keep things from getting worse. In some moment of insanity, Gero had designed a way for them to manually increase their power output by a far greater degree than simply willing it to be so like they normally did. What possessed him to make it in the form of an earring that needed to be flicked in order to function, he didn't know but that's the way it was. As soon as he felt the power reach its new level, he used his newfound level of speed to zip around behind his foe and was halfway through delivering what would have been a powerful right hook to the thing's back when Cell vanished from view. Instantly using his sensors to figure out where his target was, he managed to avoid the creature's own attack but by far slimmer a margin than he'd thought, given his new power level. Again he moved to strike the abomination and, while he did manage to make contact, it was only to be blocked by the beast's forearm which was not what he wanted.

From there a flurry of strikes, blocks and evasions became the norm between the two of them.

While this was better than being completely outclassed like before, he knew that he was still at a sizeable disadvantage as it became harder with every passing minute to either block or evade. Checking his internal systems display, he could see that he was quickly approaching the upper limits of what his body could handle. Whether it be something pathetic like a human's oven or a highly advanced android, it was rarely good for the device to operate at maximum output for very long. Not only would it accelerate the natural wear and tear of the various parts but it could lead to a complete breakdown. While most would think that Gero would design the androids to be long lasting, this was not the case in his opinion. Instead the old fossil wanted creations capable of completely overpowering his hated foe and their continued existence was only a secondary concern to that. As such, running his power source at its highest setting would eventually mean trouble for him as his systems would begin to suffer malfunctions due to the burden.

He had to figure out a way to beat this beast and fast.

Too bad his combat computer was coming up short in that department.

* * *

_**Five Minutes Later, High Above the Demolished Mountain Range, Cell's P.O.V**_

_Well I think I've let him have his way long enough to make what comes next less painful._ Cell thought as he began to bore of holding back the lion's share of his strength, _Time to end this!_

Seeing that the next blow to come was a punch aimed at his head, he waited until the last possible moment before ducking under the blow and delivering a punch of his own directed at the fool's stomach. He waited until his first meal looked about ready to be thrown back by the force of the punch before delivering another punch at his prey's head from above. Watching as his food streaked downwards to the earth below, he smiled as he could smell victory coming towards him on swift wings. Using his speed, he easily got ahead of the falling fool and, just as his enemy was about to hit the ground, he thrust his knee upwards, striking 17 in stomach once more, obliterating whatever recovered coherency the young man might have been able to obtain during his fall. Lowering his leg and letting his fellow creation of Gero fall to the ground, he watched with satisfaction as the form below him writhe in pain. It almost made him wish that he could draw this out a bit more and enjoy himself, but he knew that the more time he gave the Namek and the Jester, the more likely it was that the duo would interfere. Not that they could do anything to him personally but if an errant blast or blow wound up hitting 17 or 18, it could possibly destroy them.

That was something he could not permit.

"Well, now that you seem a tad more **receptive,** let the fusion begin." He said as he reached down and picked up the first catalyst of his evolution by the back of the shirt.

"N-n-no…I won't…let myself become a part of you!" 17 almost yelled in defiance even though he was in a poor condition to put up any resistance.

Seeing the young man's right hand rising up towards the location of the Red Ribbon symbol on his shirt, though, a possibility came up that had previously not even been considered. With a swift blow to the center of the dark haired android's back, he put an end to the feeble attempt to breach what was contained beneath the side of the chest that the symbol covered. It was a desperate and pathetic move, but it would also have destroyed dreams of becoming complete since it would have meant the destruction of Android 17. Beneath that spot was the boy's power core and any breach, no matter how small, would cause it to detonate with the force of a hundred megaton nuclear blast. It wouldn't have been enough to kill him or even seriously injure him, but it would have completely vaporized 17, leaving nothing for him to absorb.

All the more reason to end this quickly.

Bringing his tail up into position, he opened up the top wide so that the tasty morsel he held in his hand would fit easily. He felt intoxicated by what was about to happen and that, perhaps, could explain why he didn't sense the approach of the two pests until after their attacks had landed. The first came from the court jester of Saiyans in the form of a Kienzan that was used as a melee weapon rather than a projectile. It succeeded in cutting through the arm that was holding up 17, allowing the defenceless android to fall away from his tail and his destiny. The second came from the annoying Namek in the form of an energy blast to his face that, out of a mix of reflex and power, forced him away from that which he desired. It only took him a handful of seconds to recover but that proved to be more than enough for the fools to put some minor distance between them and him.

He could not contain the growl of frustration that left his mouth as he looked across the rocky battleground to where 17 was almost strong enough and coherent enough to stand on his own. Xander still looked like he was in quite a bit of pain from their earlier confrontation but nonetheless was determined to fight. Piccolo wasn't in much better shape after fighting the one he now protected for so long but, with his race's resiliency, it was unlikely such injuries would keep him from fighting further. With the three of them fighting against him and two more possible combatants waiting in the wings, he had a feeling things would become quite bothersome for him soon. This simply would not do at ALL! He would have to… discourage… them from contemplating giving him any further trouble.

"Give it up, Cell! You might've had me at a disadvantage before but with the three of us working together, even you can be beat!" Xander said, trying to make himself look more impressive than he was by taking up a strong fighting stance.

"Oh? Would that be because you believe I can only fight against one of you at a time?" he asked with a malevolent smile as he looked at the three of them, "Does that about cover it?"

A nod was all he received as a response from Xander.

"So **naïve**." He said before he pushed his speed to its current maximum.

As though they were nothing but statues, he approached them and while he could see signs of movement from them as he came to a stop right in front of them but by then it was too late. A front thrust kick to 17 added to the damage he'd done earlier, making sure that he'd be out of the picture for the next five to ten minutes. Reaching out with both hands, he then grabbed both Piccolo and Xander by their heads and with force just shy of what it'd take to crack their skulls open slammed their craniums together before throwing them in opposite directions. Reigning in his power and slowing down, time sped up until it ran at a speed most of the fools of this planet would consider normal. As such those that had once been passing through the air like it was water now flew faster than all but the most trained eyes could follow. Sadly the trio had been standing too far away from any vertical surfaces to slam into them so instead, once their momentum played out, they fell to the stone ridden floor, bouncing quite a bit before coming to a stop.

"Now… what was that you were saying about me being beaten?" he asked rhetorically and confidently as his foes writhed on the ground in pain.

While confident that he'd made his point he knew that the morons writing on the ground before him would never stop trying to defeat him so long as they were able to stand or throw a punch. While the practical thing to do would be to kill those that stood in his way before going after 17 and 18 he worried that if he did so his primary targets would get away. If that happened then there was a possibility his evolution would be delayed even further and to permit that was unthinkable! No he would devour 17 **now** while he had the opportunity and then with the new level of power he would achieve he'd finish his growth with 18 thus becoming the supreme life form of the entire galaxy. With that in mind he crossed the distance between where he'd been standing to his intended prey and without any of the drama he'd used before picked up the still writhing android. With equal speed he brought his tail up and widened so that it would easily be able to devour his target without any trouble. With all due speed he sent it streaking downwards but then out of nowhere a large hand with a green arm brace clamped down on it stopping it in its tracks. Tracking the arm back to its source he found that it was the unknown android he'd seen flying alongside 17 when the boy had been pursuing Piccolo to this spot. He'd discounted the large one as being no threat since he had nothing in the files Gero's computer had provided him with about such a model.

However the fact that green clad man obviously possessed superior strength to have stopped his tail so easily.

"I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to do that." Spoke the giant in a monotone and synthetic manner.

Then the world was temporarily switched out with pain and when it returned he found himself without 17 in his grasp as well as several meters away in the air. Growling at yet another obstacle to his ambitions, he righted himself mid-air the last of his good humour vanishing like steam in the air.

After all, there was only so much a being of his status could be expected to take.

* * *

_**Eight Minutes Later, The Battlefield That Once Was a Mountain Range, Xander's P.O.V**_

_How do I keep getting myself into these messes?!_ Xander asked himself with some exasperation as his latest attempt to get into the fight failed.

As much as his spirit might be willing to continue the fight against Cell, his body was simply too battered up at the moment to permit it. Standing wasn't too hard and neither was basic movement but the moment he tried to bring his ki level back up to where he could contribute, the pain spiked. He didn't even want to think about how much it'd hurt if he tried to go Super Saiyan and that was precisely what it'd take for him to be able to hit Cell, never mind hurt him. It frustrated him to no end and for once it wasn't just his Saiyan nature talking through him. He knew that this was going to be a turning point for the entire mess that Gero brought into this world when he created his killer androids. Either Cell would accomplish his goals by devouring 17 and 18 or they'd succeed in defeating the monster but be in pretty sorry condition for fighting the remaining killing machines. While the latter possibility would be the preferred one, he didn't think he'd be able to count on his silver tongue to get dual duo to leave them alone this time. True, they might get so banged up that the androids might just leave under the pretence of it not being 'fun' to kill them as bloody as they were now, but he wasn't willing to put money on that possibility.

Looking up at the battle going on, he didn't know whether to be happy or scared that the big android with the orange mohawk hairstyle looked to be winning against Cell. Where he hadn't been able to even touch the creature, this guy, so to speak, was not only able to match the conglomeration of genetic material but he was able to top the bastard more often than not. Unfortunately there was the little problem of getting the damage done to the creature to stick since, with the DNA of Piccolo in the abomination, anything more serious than a laceration could be regenerated. This was proven by the fact that the arm he'd sliced off to free 17 earlier had been grown back in seconds with only some sort of acidic goo letting anyone know what its origins were. As for damage that rated under the laceration point, like bruising, didn't really mean much since it only pissed the monster off. Unless they inflicted a level of damage on the beast that was more than the Namekian DNA could handle, this fight was going to take forever.

_Or not! _He thought as he watched the large brute of an android slam Cell into the ground so hard the killer must have gone over ten feet into the ground.

He wondered how things would go from here when the big android stood at the edge of the humanoid shaped hole, tucked both hands under the opposite armpit and then detached everything below the elbow, leaving only two stump like this behind. He was wondering what the purpose of this was when his ears picked up a quickly growing electronic whine coming from the direction of the Big Guy. Despite how dim some people thought he was, he knew what a charging energy weapon sounded like and so he quickly took to the air despite the spike in pain it caused him.

"HELL FLASH!!"

Any thought that it might be contained to just the immediate vicinity of the attack went out the window as the ground began to swell up in places before releasing beams of excess energy into the air. While he didn't have to worry too much he still had to stay aware of his surroundings to avoid being hit by an stray column of energy. When all was said and done the mountain range looked even more demolished than it had before and, quite frankly, he hadn't thought that that was possible. Using his ki sense he looked for Cell's power signature, hoping that the monster hadn't decided to cloak it like he had during their pursuit of him the last few days. It took a moment but he picked it up and grinned at the fact that the abomination's power level had just taken a major hit. It wasn't quite at the half level mark but it was definitely better than anything that had been accomplished so far. Another hit like that and the big guy could just take a break leaving him and Piccolo to mop up whatever was left. He tried to pin down precisely where Gero's final creation was but it wasn't easy. Whether it was ambient energy left over from the large android's attack or the monster consciously trying to disperse his ki to confuse everyone, he didn't know. It was looking for someone generating a smoke cloud around them that extended many feet from their body. While it was logical to think that the source would be in the center somewhere it was just as possible for them to be elsewhere, depending on how the smoke was being made.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see that everyone else was pretty much in the same state but no one really had a solid fix on the enemy's position. They all knew that the bug man was still in the area, nothing would make the test tube terror leave until he had devoured 17 and 18, but none could narrow things down to the point where they could direct an attack at him. He looked over to the femme fatale he'd been 'playing' with a little under an hour ago, just in case Cell intended to go after her, but after an intensive scan of the area around her, he could safely say that there was nothing there. He was just turning back to where 17 was when he caught sight of something rising up out of the ground behind the boy and immediately made for the male android's location. Cell had come up right out of one of the holes the big guy's blast had created and it looked like the poster boy for bandana weekly was too busy praising his comrade for 'finishing off cell' to notice. IDIOT!! He forced his way past the pain that spiked ever higher with the ki he was forcing his body to generate to increase his speed because he knew that if he didn't stop Cell, pain would be the least of his worries. He could sense Piccolo doing the same and, unless his head had been hurt more than he'd realised, Tien was also making an attempt to head off the disaster unfolding before them.

They'd fail.

Before any of them had managed to reach the halfway point, Android 17 was already more than halfway into the monster's tail and when they were almost three quarters of the way, there nothing of the dark haired young man could be seen with the naked eye. It didn't take long before the monster's power level went from barely above half to skyrocketing way past what should have been the abomination's maximum power output. With the rise in power, the environment around the beast began to be affected with dirt, gravel and even some of the larger head-sized bits of rock began to fly away like they'd been thrown by some unseen force. Parts of Cell began to flash with an inner light as though the energy building within was almost more than could be contained and then, in one final flare of light that caused everyone to stop and look away, he knew it was done.

Whatever chance they might have had to defeat Cell that day had just vanished like darkness did when the sun peeked over the horizon.

He knew now that there was only one thing he could do to keep things from getting any worse and that was to get Android 18 out of there before the newly evolved Cell got his hands on her as well. Turning around, he poured on the speed towards the blonde bombshell using his supreme focus on what he had to do in order to keep the pain at bay.

"Piccolo! Big Guy! Buy me some time!" Ye yelled out without looking at either of the two as he closed the distance between himself and the beauty that had been plaguing his thoughts.

Hearing roars of defiance and energy blasts coming from behind him, he was glad that they'd chosen to obey his command rather than ask questions or ignore him. They didn't have time to debate things or for him to explain his motives. Touching down next to her, he grabbed her by the arm and then prepared to use the one move that might get the two of them away from here in the blink of an eye.

"What are you doing?" Android 18 asked, sounding both surprised and annoyed.

"I'm getting your shapely ass out of here before Cell takes a bite out of it!" He replied as he pressed his index and middle finger to his forehead, "Now shut up and let me concentrate!"

He knew being so short with her wasn't smart but he was having enough trouble focusing thanks to the concussion he seemed to have gotten from Cell forcing his head to meet Piccolo's earlier. Goku had taught him this move and one of the most important things was being able to keep an absolute lock on the ki signature you were aiming for. When you were literally breaking yourself down into a mass of energy and then directing it across large distances with the intent of reassembling it somewhere else, you couldn't afford to slip up at any point in the process. Have anything less than a solid lock on your target and you could wind up rematerializing inside of a mountain or a wall resulting in instant death. Still, despite the danger involved, it was the only way he could see them getting away from Gero's biological monstrosity.

Reaching out with his mind, he looked for the nearest power signature he could be supremely confident of getting a lock on yet was far enough away that Cell wouldn't spot them in seconds. He couldn't teleport her to where Goku was or the monster would likely destroy the Lookout along with anyone unfortunate enough to be there at the time. That meant he had to lock onto a human of some sort and that meant the closer that human was the more solid the lock would be on the target. It was infuriating how hard it was to sense a single human amidst all the background life energy that was floating around. As he heard the sounds of his distractions falling silent and Cell getting closer, he knew he was running out of time and so decided on the best of five that he had found so far.

"Hold on! This is going to be a bit disorienting for a first timer." He said before executing the Instant Transmission technique spiriting away both him and Android 18 from the battlefield.

* * *

_**Twenty-nine Miles Away, A Dirt Road in the Middle of Nowhere, Android 18's P.O.V**_

"Where are we? How'd you do that?" Android 18 asked as she tried to comprehend how she'd gone from a demolished mountain range to a dirt road in hicksville.

"Don't have a clue about the first one but as to the second I used a new technique that Goku taught me about two years or so ago. It's called Instant Transmission." Xander replied looking like he might not be on his feet for much longer, "Think of it as teleportation. Now we gotta get moving. Look around. There should be a car or something nearby that we can use."

"What? Why?" She asked not seeing where her 'hero' was going with his requests, "We're far enough away that Cell won't find us. We're safe now."

"Not quite. Using the Instant Transmission technique gives off a one second burst both at the departure point and at the arrival area." He replied as he continued to look about the immediate area for the vehicle he claimed was here, "There's an off chance that if Cell's paying attention he might just pick up the burst I gave off. If that's the case we have minutes at best before he gets here."

"If he's going to be here so soon, shouldn't we just fly away? It'd be faster than any old junk heap we'd find out here." She said, doubting very much they'd find anything faster than some farmer's beat up pick up truck.

"No. If I flew he'd pick up my ki signature." He explained as he began to walk somewhat unsteadily away from her in search of his mystery vehicle.

"Then I'll carry you. Looks like you're about to fall over anyways." She said with some contempt that the Saiyan she'd had her eyes on had gotten himself so banged up.

"Better, but still not a smart move. Not a lot of stuff to hide behind in the air and a lot easier to see someone flying since they aren't sky blue or cloud white." He stated, firming up his steps no doubt out of that senseless Saiyan Pride of his, "A car would be best because unless he spots us with eyes alone, he could fly right by without even noticing us."

As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't refute the logic of what the young man was saying. It offended her sensibilities that she, an android that was supposed to be above even Goku, had to hide in such a cowardly manner, but at the same time she'd seen Cell's power. Even before he'd absorbed 17 he'd been more than she could hope to defeat on her own and, while it had been brief, her sensors had registered how powerful the monster had become. Where before he'd been almost fifty percent stronger than anyone on the battlefield, he had surged to become more than two hundred percent according to the last reading she'd looked at before the Instant Transmission technique was used. It had been humbling being confronted with a power so much stronger than herself and truthfully she didn't like the feeling one little bit. It reminded her too much of **that** time. The time when she was at Gero's mercy in his lab undergoing the 'upgrades' he had promised would make her strong enough that no one would be able to hurt her ever again, that she'd be able to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted with no one able to stop her or even slow her down. Not until she'd been injected with a sedative and saw the evil smile on his face did she realise that something was seriously wrong. From then on she'd had her own powerlessness rubbed in her face over and over again by that bastard and, when she'd finally broken free, she'd sworn she would never let herself feel like that again.

_And I won't! Not ever again!_ She thought as she ruthlessly shoved the memories down to a dark place where she wouldn't ever see them again.

Putting her entire focus into finding the vehicle that was supposed to be around here somewhere, anything to keep her mind occupied, so they could leave this place. It took a couple of minutes but eventually she found it at about the same time Xander did and, just as she'd predicted, it was a beat up truck that had to be at least ten years old. Nearby was a farmer laying up against a tree with three empty liquor bottles leaning up against his leg. A bit of good luck in her opinion since it meant that it could be hours before the drunken fool woke up to find his truck gone. Add another couple of hours to walk back to whatever passed for civilization around here and it could easily be a day before enough of a commotion would be created that Cell might pick up on it.

Seeing Xander moving towards the truck, an instability in his walking cropped up again, making it clear what sort of shape he was in. Shaking her head in disgust, she zipped ahead of him and opened the driver's side door before he could. She saw him look up at her in inquiry and decided to make it abundantly clear why she was doing this.

"You're a mess quite frankly and I don't want you to wind up passing out along the way." She explained before getting in and looking for the keys.

She took her time looking since she knew he'd be at least a minute getting around to the other side of the vehicle. Hearing the door open and the truck shift as it took on his weight, she checked the last place where the keys might be. Smiling as it seemed that lady luck was still with the two of them today, she closed her hands around the keys before putting what she hoped was the right one into the ignition. Turning the key, she immediately took back her belief that luck was still with them as the engine protested being prodded like this. Refusing to give up she tried it over and over again varying the length of time she waited between tries. It seemed to take forever but eventually the engine finally came to life but, judging by the sounds she was hearing, it could give out at any time.

_All the more reason to get the show and this bucket of bolts on the road._ She thought as she drove the car onto the nearby dirt road, not much caring where they went so long as it was away from Cell.

Fortunately, using her internal sensors and the satellite that Gero managed to sneak into orbit when no one else was looking, she was able to find out exactly where they were and where Cell most likely still was. From there it was a simple matter of heading away from that monster and, while she'd prefer to do the maximum recommended speed limit for this area, she didn't want to risk the engine in this clunker giving out. Instead she monitored the sounds that the truck was making and made sure not to go fast enough to make though sounds step into the danger zone. It meant they couldn't go much more than half the recommended speed limit but it was better than walking, which probably would have been the only alternative Xander would find acceptable since flying was out of the question.

_Speaking of whom, I should probably ask him if has any long-term plans in mind._ She thought as they headed down a road her memory banks said would take them to a small town in about five hours.

Turning to where he sat on the passenger side of the truck, she was about to open her mouth when she realised that the Saiyan was fast asleep. Impressive, since the pain from his wounds should have been enough to make falling asleep difficult and staying asleep impossible, but she guessed it just meant he had been very tired out from all the fighting. First fighting her and then going all out against Cell would have been pretty rough considering how hard he would have had to push himself just to keep up or keep from getting killed. Given that, according to Gero's files, the Saiyans were something similar to high output energy reactors and it made sense that the battles he'd been in today would have consumed much of his energy.

He looked sorta cute, all asleep like that.

Even with all the grime and blood on him.

_And I have to have a concussion of my own to think something like THAT!_ She thought before shaking her head in disbelief.


	16. The Hunt Begins

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of the respective creators and/or companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write for my own amusement and for the enjoyment of the fanfic reading community

_**Three Hours Later, A Hotel Outside of Parsley City, Room 13B, Xander's P.O.V**_

The first thing that hit him once his consciousness returned was the flare of pain when he moved, the second being some distinctly artificial tightness around his stomach. Deciding to eliminate the first problem by going still, he opened his eyes and looked downwards on his obviously horizontal body to find that he was shirtless and had numerous bandages on his torso. The largest was around his stomach and, unsurprisingly, that was where the majority of the pain was centred with lesser amounts of pain scattered throughout his body. It was after he asked himself the question of 'what the hell happened' that everything came back to him, causing him to unwisely sit up, an act that quickly brought an almost unbearable onslaught of pain that almost put him back on his back. Only a quickly placed arm used to hold himself up on the sitting position prevented that from happening and so all he had to do was wait until the pain receded.

When he no longer had to focus on combating the pain, he looked around his position and found himself in a hotel room, a cheap one at that, rather than in the passenger seat of the truck he remembered pushing himself into. Obviously the blonde bombshell had driven them to this hotel and patched him up a bit but he had to wonder if she was still in the immediate area. Probably not, given that she had no reason to stay with him and had probably done all she was willing to do in order to pay him back for the rescue from Cell. The female machine had shown that she cared nothing for anyone besides herself and maybe her sibling 17, so it was probably only a whim that had her get this hotel room and patch him up. Still, as much as he'd like to just head to Kami's place to chew on a Senzu bean, he couldn't take the chance that Cell might find the last surviving android. While he had tried to impress upon the…woman that she needed to keep as low a profile as possible, he didn't like the odds of her following his advice. No, she'd probably wind up blowing someone up because they made a crack about her looks and that would be like sending up a signal flare to let Cell know where she was.

Like it or not, he had to find her and stick close to her.

If Cell managed to absorb her then it'd all be over with and not even an insane amount of training in the hyperbolic time chamber would make a difference. Moving gingerly, he reached for a shirt that was about his size and hanging from a nearby chair. It was painful and more than a little difficult to get his arms down the sleeves but at least it was a dress shirt rather than a T-Shirt, since it meant that wouldn't have to raise his arms above his head or stretch things that didn't want to be stretched. Once that was done he set both his feet on the floor before preparing himself for the unpleasantness that would be getting to his feet. He was about to make his first attempt when the sounds of a key being inserted into the lock on the door of his room reached his ears. Wondering if it was room service or maid service or something, he waited cautiously hoping against hope that 18 hadn't decided to run up the bill for the place before leaving him to pay for it all.

When the door opened he was a little surprised to find the fine femme herself walking in the door with a bag of what looked to be convenience store goods in it.

"So you finally decided to wake up." Android 18 said like Queen C usually did to people who finally got a clue in terms of fashion, "It's about time. Don't even think about getting up yet, though, because after the thrashing me and Cell gave you you're lucky you don't need a body cast or something."

Deciding that he wouldn't try to stand but would stay sitting at least, he decided to get the less touchy questions out of the way first before moving onto things she'd likely try to evade.

"So where are we exactly?" he asked, looking around the room on the off chance it'd give him a clue as to their geographical location.

"A hotel outside of Parsely City. It was the only place I could find that we could afford with the money that drunken piece of meat left in the glove compartment." 18 replied before tossing the bag at him, "Here. Eat up."

Looking inside the bag he could tell the food wasn't the healthiest but as his Saiyan appetite was quick to inform him with a loud rumbling beggars couldn't be choosers. Tearing away the plastic packaging he took two bites of the sub sandwich, chewed and then swallowed before moving onto the second most important question on his list.

"So why are you still here?" he asked, putting his meal down for a moment, "I would've thought you'd strike out on your own once you were satisfied that I wouldn't keel over."

"Please! You might be hurt but you weren't and aren't anywhere near about to die." Eighteen replied with dismissive contempt, "As for why I'm still here, I should think it'd be obvious."

Seeing her look at him an absurd thought surfaced in his mind that perhaps she had feelings for him and her continued look of focus seemed to support this theory.

"I'm still here because with your Instant Transmission technique, you're the best chance I have to stay one step ahead of Cell." The blonde sighed with annoyed disbelief, "Plus if worse comes to worse, I could always use you as cannon fodder to buy me time to get away."

_Honesty how cruel is thy sting!_ He thought as his moment of fancy was shattered, _Still, at least I won't have to worry about her flying off on me._

"So I don't suppose you have any ideas about dealing with Cell?" she asked crossing her arms across her chest.

"Well, fighting it out with him is a definite no-no. So that leaves hiding until the others take him down." He replied as he did his best to come up with a sound plan, "That means keeping as low a profile as possible. We use public transportation or, failing that, hotwiring vehicles that won't be missed. In fact we'll get going after I finish eating. It looks like I've been out for three or four hours and that's a little too long to stay in one place."

"Aren't you being a little hasty? Even if that monster managed to find where we appeared after you used the technique, he's still got a lot of ground to cover." Android 18 said sounding a bit surprised.

"Not really. There wasn't a lot in the way of cover where we landed and I was pretty banged up." He explained after polishing off the sub and working on the next sandwich, "Add those facts to your sparkling personality and he's pretty much guaranteed to think we'd head for the nearest town or city. Sure, he might not know if we've arrived here yet but I doubt he's going to search every ant hill and bush for us along the way."

After a moment of thought she nodded at his reasoning.

"We'll try to change vehicles as often as possible picking a direction at random to make it that much harder to find us." He said, tossing the wrapper for the sandwich over his shoulder, "If we can keep away of Cell for at least another twenty-four hours, we should be alright."

"Why twenty-four hours?" Eighteen asked raising a questioning eyebrow up.

"Let's just say my friends know of a place where a person can get a year's worth of training in a single day." He replied not wanting to give too much away to the ally/enemy, "I know that Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Trunks went up there and by now two of them must be close to hitting the end of their day. Once they get that full day of training finished they'll come out and head straight for Cell."

He knew without thinking about it that the pseudo woman was filing that piece of information in her mechanical mind for possible future use. Not that it'd do her much good since the Hyperbolic Time Chamber wouldn't help her get any stronger. She was a machine, after all, and so her maximum strength level was limited by her design specifications. Unless Gero download files on how to perform upgrades, no amount of training would help her get stronger.

"Shouldn't be too hard to stay out of sight that long." Stated the blonde bombshell, seemingly satisfied with his answer.

"I hope you're right." He said already imagining the worst case scenario and thinking up ways of handling it.

With those words he finished consuming the contents of the bag and took some satisfaction in the fact that his hunger was satiated. He wasn't by any means stuffed but his stomach would be pacified for the time being. Using the napkins in the bag, he quickly wiped his mouth before shakily managing to get to his feet. It wasn't pleasant by any means but he believed that so long as he didn't try running or jumping or anything else that might jar his injuries he'd be able to manage.

"Let's go." He said walking firmly towards the door to the room.

Walking outside, he could easily spot the beat up vehicle they'd **borrowed** from the drunken man that he'd locked onto in order to use the Instant Transmission technique. It still looked like it'd fall apart the second it hit fifty miles per hour but it was all they had and he didn't think taking someone else's car in broad daylight would be a smart move. He walked over to the passenger side door while Eighteen went to the driver's side. It didn't take long for them to get back onto the road and, after he directed the android to go around the city rather than try to drive through it, their mission of staying one step ahead of Dr. Gero's final creation began.

_Hurry up you guys! _He thought with his mind turning towards his friends at Kami place, _Before both time and luck run out for everybody._

_**The Sky Above Sector B-2 of the Planet Earth, An Hour and a Half Later, Cell's P.O.V**_

_Curse that addle brained prankster!_ Cell thought as he attempted to locate the sole element he needed to become complete, _How dare he delay my rise to godhood!_

It infuriated him to no end that his euphoric moment after devouring Android 17 had been so severely soured when his next meal vanished from sight less than a second before he could claim it. As soon as Xander and Eighteen had vanished he had cast his eyes about in an effort to find them and, when that failed, he'd used his ability to sense ki energy. He'd almost thought he'd lost them when he'd felt a barely perceivable ping at the edge of his senses that almost went overlooked had he not been so focused on his task. As soon as he'd finished off Piccolo, Tien and the giant Android 16, he'd taken off leaving them behind him as he flew with determination to reach what he'd sensed as swiftly as possible. In his newly acquired form he'd managed to reach the location of the flicker inside of twenty-five minutes and scrutinized the entire area looking for a sign of that foolish Saiyan and the final third to his perfect form. There wasn't a whole lot to see in the dust ridden wasteland and certainly not enough to conceal two people from his genetically superior eyes. Focusing his senses, he did his best to scour everything within range for what he sought but, when that'd failed, he moved on leaving nothing unperceived.

For three and a half straight hours he conducted his search using the importance of his objective to restrain his growing impatience at his lack of success. Now, though… now he could not tolerate his search any longer and chose to take a different approach by attempting to deduce where his prey had likely gone. Closing his eyes, he stretched out with his ki senses looking for the Saiyan since he knew that Eighteen did not put out an energy signature that he could track. It was a smart move since it was safe to say that even if the fool was trying to suppress his power signal, he was simply too powerful to lower it to the same level as the ants that dominated this planet. All he needed to do is find the ki signature that was just that much stronger than the majority and he'd have the ones he sought. Like the light of the sun sweeping over the landscape at dawn, he examined every body of life energy within range, using himself as the epicentre of it all.

There were a few times that he thought he'd found the ones he sought but, upon closer examination, he found the energy wasn't Saiyan in nature. Eventually he come upon the nearest towns and cities who were quite similar to the ones he'd fed upon to increase his power to a level capable of overwhelming his prey. It was not easy picking out one signal out of many, even if it was easily six times higher than the average human's, but eventually he managed to pick up a lingering trace of Saiyan energy. Reaching top speed in under five seconds he flew towards the ki scent of his prey, arriving above what his implanted memories told him was Parsley City. Looking down at the colony of ants below him, he tired to get a more precise fix on his prey but the abundance of powerless humans was acting like a smokescreen with the Saiyan energy showing up as a trail of small candles that could barely be seen. It wasn't enough to show him exactly where Xander and Eighteen had gone but it was enough to give him a general direction to work with.

Coasting at a speed just higher than what your average news helicopter could manage, he followed the somewhat obscured path before him, almost losing it more than once. However once more the pace at which his search was going began to frustrate him and this time it could not be restrained. Instead of trying to search for them amidst the bugs of this world, he would eliminate the blanket of background noise while flushing out his prey at the same time.

"Time to liven things up!" he said before stretching out his arm with a finger pointing at the northern edge of town, "Dodonpa!"

A beam of energy shot out from his finger, crossing the distance between it and the target in less than two seconds before it hit the ground, unleashing such devastation that, when the dust settled, left only a crater filled with smoking debris. Again and again he fired his destructive power, laying waste to all it touched, ridding the area of a portion of the background noise that impeded his search. It proved quite cathartic for him and it aided him in his quest so he could only conclude that his superior mind had unsurprisingly provided him with a foolproof plan. After firing his final blast he decided to re-evaluate the landscape and see if his prey was doing as he'd hoped they would by fleeing the city.

It wasn't long before the first trickle of vehicles began to emerge from the devastated town's periphery and with their emergence he examined each one with his ki senses for the smell of his prey. He was slightly disappointed that nothing but insignificant humans were leaving the city, so once more he began to lay down fire on the few undamaged areas. If he couldn't convince Android 18 and Xander to leave the city, he would simply force them to raise their power levels to avoid being damaged. True, he was having to calibrate each blast so that it stayed below the design limitations of Eighteen but that was alright. Such blasts would make it that much easier to absorb her and with a bit of luck he just might kill that bothersome brother of Goku at the same time.

It only took a minute or two to finish levelling the city but to his great disappointment and frustration there was **still** no sign of Android 18 or her formerly tailed protector. Had they somehow managed to use their energy in some clever way that did not require them to increase it in order to survive? Unlikely. It was a basic part of ki combat that in order to endure, deflect or otherwise defeat a ki attack, you needed to use equal if not greater energy than the attack possessed. The energy he'd used for each of his Dodonpa attacks was easily enough to slay a Super Saiyan so nothing less than a power greater than that would be enough to ensure survival.

"Blast you! **BLAST YOU!**" he yelled as his anger rose high enough to break his composure, "Even in the face of my obvious superiority you continue to defy me!"

Descending towards the city below, he kept his eyes open and sharp as he looked for any sign of his prey. He could still sense traces of Saiyan energy blowing about the city so he knew that the two of them were still in the area. However, as he went by one of the few buildings still extending into the air beyond three stories, he sensed a stronger signal than before and, in a blur, shot towards his location.

Instead of finding a battered Saiyan and the key to his ascension to godhood, he found a damaged device with a fading orb of ki energy inside of it. It looked like it had been slapped together in a hurry but nonetheless it was without a doubt what had brought him to this city, thinking he'd found his prey. Somehow the Saiyan or perhaps Android Eighteen had constructed a device that could sustain a body of ki separate from the biological entity that had originally generated it. His mind quickly understood that the small candle-sized signals that he'd sensed early among the human refuse must have been machines like this one.

He'd been tricked by a series of decoys!

With a roar of rage he let his power explode outwards like a nuclear blast, obliterating everything it encountered without pause or failure. In less time than it would take to turn a full three hundred and sixty degrees everything within the city limits became less than dust drifting to the ground.

Letting his anger disperse along with the debris in the air, he began to reevaluate the situation, taking into the account the devices he suspected Xander constructed to distract him. How the youth had come up with them, much less constructed as many as he'd sensed since the time he'd absorbed 17, he didn't know. What he did know though was that he would have to hasten his search considerably in order to deprive the nuisance of the time he'd need to construct more. Recalling all he knew of the area, he tried to predict which direction the duo would have gone in once they'd set their decoys up.

"Not West Capital. Xander would not want to risk harm befalling Capsule Corps HQ and he'd expect me to go there since it's the only place associated with his friends." He said out loud, not caring how insane it made him appear, "Central City perhaps? Yes, if they intend to use humans as a smokescreen and build more of their decoy devices, that would be the logical place to go."

Then again it was something of a constant with the cousin of Vegeta that he rarely did what conventional warriors would do.

_No. I cannot allow myself to be distracted trying to figure out a chaotic mind such as Xander's._ he thought as he rose higher into the sky, _I will go to Central City and I will find them! I will become __**complete!**_

Once he'd reached an acceptable altitude, he took off towards his destination with all the speed he could muster with the death of Goku's brother and the absorbing of Android 18 at the core of his thoughts.

_**Heading East Through a Mountain Pass, Heading Towards the Diablo Desert, Android 18's P.O.V**_

"Where exactly are we going?" Android 18 asked as she continued to drive their newly acquired jeep down the unpaved trail before them.

"I thought we'd head to the remains of the self-proclaimed Emperor Pilaf's palace." Xander replied as he continued to type information onto a device he'd acquired while he'd been setting up those unusual devices, "Most of the place is completely trashed but there should be one or two underground chambers still in good enough condition for us to hide in for a time."

"You've been there before?" she asked, wondering how he could possibly know the state of the palace.

"Not really but I know that Goku went ape there when he was younger and trashed the upper levels. Since he was essentially a mindless berserker none of his power was focused on destroying anything other than what was on the surface." He replied without looking away from what he was doing, "Considering the fact that the pint sized wannabe dictator planned on using that place as his HQ for world domination, it's only logical that he'd have some underground levels for his treasure or something."

She had to agree with that.

All of the files that Dr. Gero had compiled on Goku's activities confirmed that the small little gnome had planned on using the palace as the center of his empire. Combined with the statistics she had on file involving the giant ape form that Saiyans transformed into and it was possible that some of the more reinforced underground chambers had survived the rampage of a transformed Goku. However it was also deserted so it would be simplicity itself for Cell to find them since there would be no humans to hide behind. While they did have enough components to construct two or three more of those ki sustaining devices, she didn't see what good they would do by themselves. Deciding that she needed to learn more it was time to ask the question that had been bugging her ever since she'd seen him gathering the parts for the first device.

"Where exactly did you get the idea for those devices you had me make?" she asked looking at him out of the corner of her eye, "You don't seem the scientific type."

"Actually I came up with the idea but it was Bulma who made it a reality." He replied finally putting the device in his hands down, "It was supposed to be part of a fall back plan in case our training to take down you Androids proved to be a complete waste of time. The idea was to confuse your sensors while suppressing our ki signals so we could regroup and come up with a new plan of attack. Didn't work though."

"What do you mean? The machines can sustain your ki spheres just fine." She said not understanding why he considered the machines failures.

"Let's just say they had a few design flaws that couldn't be resolved in time." He explained with some disappointment, "About the only good part of the device's overall design is that it can be made using readily available parts that can be found in any major city with Capsule Corp products. It meant we didn't need to carry around custom made equipment that would tip you guys off somehow."

She could see his point of view now and agreed that while it was a good idea, unless Ms. Briefs came up with a more effective way to sustain ki spheres, the uses for the devices would be limited. Still, after they'd constructed ten of them in Parsley City, armed them with weak ki spheres and then left for the mountain pass, it'd proven effective in distracting Cell. She'd been doubtful when she'd heard the explosions but when the destruction didn't get any closer to their position as time passed she'd been forced to conclude that his plan had worked. The monster that had devoured her 'sibling' had successfully been distracted by the devices to the point where he hadn't even bothered casting his senses towards the mountain range. Whether or not the abomination could have found them if he had, she didn't know because, while her sensors had no trouble detecting the Saiyan at this range, the difficulty would increase with distance. The only way that Cell would be able to detect him would be if the monster was flying right overhead and, considering the foul creation was heading North rather than East, that was highly unlikely.

"Too bad your devices don't work like you'd intended. 17 would have enjoyed them." She stated with her thoughts focusing on her 'sibling', "It would have been like a game to him. Like that game where you have to guess which cup the pea is under after three or more cups have been shuffled around a bit."

Indeed she could almost picture his smile whether he successfully found one of Goku's friends or just another device to destroy. Seventeen had always been partial for games, especially after some of the more painful operations Gero had put them through. He'd told her that it helped keep his mind off of the pain and the more difficult the game, the more it was able to distract him from the less pleasant things. She'd tried using games to save her from the pain and horror but it was never quite as effective with her as it had been for her 'brother'. For her she had simply embraced her growing mechanical nature because everyone knew that machines felt nothing and, at best, could only simulate emotions for the benefit of others. It had been that machine-like mentality that had allowed her to endure the operations and tests with her sanity intact and only after Gero's brain had been splattered across the laboratory floor had she allowed herself to feel again. Those feelings had grown more potent with time as evidenced by her growing attraction towards Xander, but with the current situation with Cell she couldn't abandon her chilly disposition just yet.

Still, for some reason it was… nice to be spending some time with him despite the dire situation.

She hadn't been lying when she'd told him her reasons for staying with him rather than striking out on her own. With his teleportation technique they'd only need five seconds to get away and, if it came down to a fight, he'd be sufficient to buy her time to get away. Those were the reasons she'd be willing to admit to out loud but there were other reasons why she want to be around him. With 17 gone she was free to explore her feelings for the young Saiyan and determine whether or not those feelings were mere infatuation or something… **more**. So far he was proving to have his Saiyan comrades beat in all the most important areas that she usually used to evaluate others with. He was easily as skilled as either Vegeta or Goku but, at the same time, was superior to either of the more senior Saiyans on the planet. Unlike Vegeta, Xander didn't let his ego or his pride get in the way of achieving his objective. It wasn't as though those Saiyan traits were absent in him but rather the fact that he had them under control and only when got emotional did they manifest for all to see. He was also superior to Goku in that, while he didn't have as much experience as his brother, he was in no way a simpleton like Gero's hated enemy was. The young Saiyan had first proven this by convincing both her as well as her sibling to spare Goku's friends after her battle with Vegeta and then later when she'd fought him personally.

It would prove interesting to find out what other aspects of the guy were superior to those she had stored in her database.

"So what do you plan on doing, assuming we beat Cell?" Xander asked out of the blue.

It was so unexpected it took her a minute to come up with an answer.

"I don't know. For the longest time there's been nothing but Gero and what he had planned for me and 17." She replied with surprising honesty, "We'd, of course, made plans for freeing ourselves from him but nothing beyond that, really."

"Understandable. You should probably start thinking about that now while you have the time." Xander said as he relaxed as much as he could with his injuries.

"What's the point when we don't know if Cell can be beaten?" she asked, not being very optimistic about their chances.

"Well like the old saying goes 'all battles are first won in the mind'." Xander replied, looking at her without moving his head, "If you think you're going to lose then you probably are. If you think you're going to win then you're already halfway to victory."

"Senseless platitudes meant for the weak. Power is what decides the outcome of a battle." She said, dismissing the optimistic drivel, "Those who have it win and those who don't die. It's that simple."

"Oh, power is important but having the most doesn't mean you're going to win for sure." He countered, focusing his eyes straight ahead as they took another turn, "A smart fighter can beat a strong fighter with the right plan. Plus, while Cell might have more power, he's got the cockiness of Vegeta, Freiza and King Kold in him and that'll be his downfall."

"He might be cocky but with the kind of power he has now he can afford to be." She said, not willing to believe that the weak can overcome the strong, "There's not a single person on the entire planet that is stronger than he is."

"Maybe. But here's another 'senseless platitude' for you: better to die on your feet then live on your knees." He said with a resolve filled look on his face, "No matter what happens, if I'm going down, I'm going down fighting. No begging or grovelling for me."

"Good, because that would be truly pathetic." She commented even though in her mind she was nodding in approval of the young man's stance.

She'd already made a promise to herself long ago that she would never show weakness in front of another so long as she functioned and Cell would not be an exception to that.

She would sooner die.

_**Two Hours Later, Kami's Lookout, Piccolo's P.O.V**_

"How are things going down there?" Tien asked as he joined the silent Namek at the edge of the platform that was the Lookout.

"It doesn't look like Cell's managed to find them yet if that's what you're wondering." Piccolo replied without doing anything else to acknowledge the three eyed human's presence, "He's still blasting cities at random."

Growling as another clump of life was snuffed out, he wondered how close the monster truly was to finding the duo that he sought. Ever since he'd recovered with the help Senzu bean, he'd been trying to ascertain just where Xander and the other Android were so he could take action if necessary. Unfortunately it seemed as though the youngest pureblood Saiyan had taken a page out of Cell's play book and was suppressing his ki signal to the point where it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Still, even suppressed as much as possible, it should have been possible for him to pick the recently de-tailed Saiyan out of the mass of civilian ki signals simply because a power as great as Xander's could not be forced down to the level of a normal human.

Nevertheless, even with the memories and experience of Kami to guide him, he still hadn't located the Saiyan warrior's ki signal. He's started with the area where Cell had successfully devoured Android 17 and moved outwards from there but even extending his search ahead of where Cell seemed to be going did little but reassure him that the teenager he sought wasn't there. A small comfort but one he welcomed since it meant that there was still a chance that Vegeta and Trunks could make it out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in time. With the Instant Transmission technique that Goku had taught him Xander would be able to almost instantly teleport himself and the female android clear of danger. However there were a few things that could go wrong if chance chose not to favour them for much longer.

The first, of course, was that while Android Eighteen didn't need rest, Xander would and during those moments in which he slept it would be possible for Cell to catch them unprepared. There was also the fact that the abomination created by Dr. Gero could conceal his ki signal from the sense of even the most skilled of warriors. They'd all learned that the hard way when they'd tried to track the beast of a man after his escape from Ginger Town so that they could kill him before he could encounter the two Androids he sought. If Cell remembered to use that technique and showed some patience, it was entirely possible that he could locate the two fugitives without either of them realizing it until it was too late. Fortunately it seemed as though patience was the one thing that wouldn't be coming to the test tube freak for quite awhile and there wasn't a single thing wrong with that.

However, once all the anger, frustration and rage played itself out, Cell would come to his senses and it would a whole new ballgame.

If it came down to a fight he knew that neither Xander nor Android 18 would be strong enough to even slow down the monster that pursued them. He knew the Saiyan would give it his all but, unless he stumbled upon a Senzu bean that Krillin or someone else dropped, then he would be too beat up from his earlier fight with Gero's foul creation to do anything of consequence. As for the female android, if her design was anything like 17's she might be able to last a minute but only if the abomination that wished to devour her was feeling playful at the time.

Playfulness would only last so long though.

Turning back to the entrance of the sole building on the lookout, he stretched out with his senses in an effort to determine whether or not The Vegetable and Trunks were about to emerge. Nothing. With the door closed the connection to the pocket dimension was completely cut off to his senses, making it impossible to sense what was going on inside. The waiting frustrated him to no end! Yet there was nothing more he could do at this point until either father and son exited the Hyperbolic Time Chamber or he got a better fix on Xander's location. If events played out to the former, then **hopefully** the whole thing would be over with in a matter of hours and all that would be left would be to destroy Android 18 along with her giant companion. However his gut was telling him that outcome would depend completely on just how insufferably arrogant Vegeta turned out to be once he left the Chamber. If he turned out to be not much worse than when he entered, then there was hope, but if the fool's ego had increased significantly in size then he would sooner depend on Krillin to defeat Cell.

As for the latter… that was why he was looking down upon the Earth below with such focus and determination. He already knew that Bulma had given Krillin the controller she'd made to shut down the Androids so that they could be destroyed but, considering the size of the device, it would need to be activated at close range in order to work. However even from this place, this lookout, where Kami was able to see so much, he was finding it extremely difficult and time consuming to find the comrade and the enemy he sought. Every member of the Z fighters knew how to suppress their power levels, it was a necessity, but the stronger they got the harder it became not to stick out to the point where someone sharp enough spot them. Based on the fight that Xander had with Gero, he'd say that while he wasn't quite as strong as his two older relatives when going all out, the kid was still strong enough that hiding wouldn't be easy. Even with the injuries the brother of Goku would still possess too much power to completely suppress it and so it didn't make sense that he was having so much trouble finding Vegeta's cousin.

_Could Goku or Vegeta have taught him some new technique?_ He thought as he considered the possibility, _Possible but not likely. Goku's moments of sneakiness happen by accident and Vegeta wouldn't because it'd be seen as a sign of weakness. Well, that and the Vegetable wouldn't be able to prove his superiority that way._

Whatever the case turned out to be, he hoped that Xander had the sense to get into contact with them soon so that they could destroy Android 18. With her gone Cell wouldn't get any stronger than he was at the moment and with some training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber even he might be able to take down the monster. If Dr. Gero's final creation managed to devour the final Android and become complete though…he honestly didn't know what it would take to defeat someone like that.

"Goku!" came the voice of Mr. Popo from the entrance of the only building on the Lookout, "Come quick! Vegeta and Trunks are coming out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

"About time!" Goku exclaimed pretty much voicing what they were all thinking.

"I heard strange sounds coming from inside the Chamber." Mr. Popo explained as he led them all to the door of the Chamber, "I believe their time is up."

It took a few minutes at a fast run but they all made it just to see the door open and the light from within stretch out towards them. The first to emerge was Trunks who looked decided more mature with longer hair and clothes that were so worn out that they were practically write offs, or would be once Bulma saw them. Vegeta came next and, while the Vegetable didn't look all that different, it was clear the self-proclaimed Prince of all Saiyans had engaged in some serious training while inside the Chamber.

"Thanks for waiting, guys. Did we miss anything?" Trunks asked once he stepped out of the light provided by the interior of the Chamber.

"It's good to have you back!" Goku stated, genuinely grateful to see the younger Saiyan again, "Things have gotten worse since you entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

"Hey Trunks! You've changed." Stated Gohan once again showing his mastery at stating the obvious like his father.

"I'll say! You look like you're in great shape." Goku said prompting the others present to examine the youth closer.

It was true that the person standing before them now was no longer the reckless youth that had first come to warn them about the coming of the Androids. While Trunks hadn't put on any more bulk, he had toned up what he did have and looked like he might have gotten faster than he was before. Stretching out with his ki senses, he could tell that in this relaxed state Bulma's son was stronger than he'd been going into the Chamber but just how much stronger would have to wait until the fighting started.

"You were in the chamber for a whole day. I've never known anyone to last that long." Mr. Popo said clearly impressed by what had been accomplished.

"We probably could have come out a lot sooner but father wasn't willing to leave until he was sure he'd done all he could do." Trunks said, showing a little irritation at being kept inside the Chamber, "He insisted on training for the full year even, though it only took him a couple of months to—"

"Quiet! You've said quite enough." Vegeta said harshly to silence his son, "Our training is not to be discussed **ever**."

"Well, I guess you're going to have to wait and see for yourself." Trunks said deciding to obey his father on this point.

"So it worked out?" Goku asked with that insufferable Saiyan smirk on his face.

"Maybe." Was all Vegeta would say in reply no doubt taking pleasure in keeping them all guessing, "I will take care of everything now. There's no need to attempt the training, Kakrot, because I am sure you would not survive it. Besides, I can guarantee that I won't be needing any of you to help me take care of the Androids."

"You fool!" Tien exclaimed sounding like he'd like nothing better than to grab the Vegetable by the straps of his armor.

Quickly putting up an arm to block the fellow warrior from doing anything foolish he decided to put in his own two cents into the conversation

"Listen. I don't know how powerful you think you are but you're underestimating our enemies." He said, doing what he could to convince the arrogant ass to take his words seriously.

Predictably Vegeta only chuckled.

The fool.

"While you were in the Time Chamber, Cell swallowed up Android 17 and transformed so don't try to tell us you can 'handle it'." Tien said sounding a bit more in control of his temper, "You don't even know what you're up against."

"Hahaha. Clearly trying to defeat Cell has taken its toll on all of you. That's why I'm offering to take care of him myself." Vegeta said not affected at all by the words of caution being sent his way.

"Vegeta I really suggest you listen to Tien and Piccolo." Goku said trying to convince his rival to listen, "I mean you'd have to triple your strength to stand a chance—"

The smug laughter of the Prick of all Saiyans was all the clue anyone needed to guess just how far training in the Chamber had taken Vegeta. It was a bold claim but if anyone could do it, it'd be Vegeta. The bastard's ambition to one day surpass and then probably kill Goku was all the incentive the jackass needed to push his training regimes to the limit of what he could endure and beyond.

Whether or not that would be enough to put the former foe on equal ground with Cell was something they'd all have to wait to find out.

"Where's Xander?" Trunks asked looking about the immediate area, "Wasn't he with you Piccolo?"

"He's down on Earth keeping Android 18 away from Cell." He replied doing his best to keep his concern to himself, "Near as we can tell, he's using Goku's Instant Transmission technique to play 'Keep Away' with that monster."

For a brief moment he could see a surge of emotions in the eyes of the boy from the future.

Fear, sadness, grief and finally a desire to go to his Uncle's side.

No doubt Trunks was recalling something from his past that involved Xander and the Androids. Not that he could blame the young man. He had his own misgivings about the battered Saiyan playing minder to that femme fatale but there was nothing he could do until he got a fix on the dimension traveller's position.

"Yoo-hoo! Hello!" came Bulma's annoying voice from the middle of the Lookout, "Hey where are you guys?"

At a slightly more sedate pace than what they'd used to get to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, they went to where the heir to Capsule Corps was waiting for them. While he was mildly curious about what the woman was doing here, he found he didn't really care so long as she didn't make their overall situation any worse.

"Hey Bulma what are you doing here?" Goku asked from the front of the group.

"I brought some things for all of you." She replied with baby Trunks in her arms, "You might need them."

However before the woman could say anything more her eyes widened which was a sure sign she'd caught sight of future Trunks' new look. Bulma rushed over to him as quickly as she could without overly jostling the baby in her arms.

"Oh my gosh! Trunks! What happened?" she asked looking over the torn clothes and longer hair, "I mean you are Trunks, right?"

"Uh…yeah…" replied the boy from the future who clearly was not comfortable being looked at by a younger version of his mother.

"Oh wow! You've grown." Bulma said in amazement before tugging on the teenager's long hair, "Hey is this a wig? No it's **real**!"

"I was in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. I spent a year in there." Trunks explained, sounding less awkward now that he had something else to think about, "But outside only a day had passed. That's why I've grown a little."

"Oh." Bulma stated as eloquently as ever.

"Father and I trained together." Trunks said finishing his explanation.

"Huh. Vegeta, you don't look that different." Bulma stated looking over at the short Saiyan, "Why didn't your hair grow at all?"

"For your information a pure Saiyan's hair does not change from the day that he is born." Vegeta replied out of surprise more than any desire to answer the question.

Everyone took in this little tidbit like the interesting piece of information it was. He knew that he'd always wondered how Goku's hair hadn't changed once since the day his predecessor had been slain but in the end he decided it didn't really matter all that much. They had more important things to be concerned about than Saiyan grooming habits.

After a break up in the odd discussion about hair care, not something he needed to worry about considering he didn't **have** any hair, Bulma revealed the reason why she'd come to the lookout. To deliver brand new Saiyan combat uniforms that had used Vegeta's as a template. According to the sea blue haired woman, there were enough in the box for everyone but he promptly declined stating that he had no intention of dressing up like a Saiyan, regardless of the added protection it might afford him. Considering the fact that the Saiyans got the armor from the monster that had destroyed his homeworld and very nearly him as well, he wouldn't touch the the outfits with a ten foot pole. Tien shared his opinion, though it likely had more to do with the fact that he'd been killed by Vegeta's pal Nappa and so had a good reason to see the Vegetable like the murderer he was. Not that he was in any position to toss any stones since, once upon a time, he wasn't much better.

"Aw c'mon guys! They looked good and they fit great too." Goku said as he finished slipping into the top half of the armor.

"There's no need for you to wear that. You won't even get a chance to use it." Vegeta said condescendingly as he improved the fit of his right glove, "So why even bother putting it on?"

"Is that because you plan on finishing Cell all by yourself?" Goku asked catching onto what his rival was implying, "Well, I hope that you can pull it off."

For a moment the two stared each other down but he wasn't worried about a fight breaking out. Vegeta's ego would compel him to face the the monster the rest of them couldn't beat in order to prove his superiority as a warrior. If the arrogant asshole managed to pull that off, **then** he might come back to kill Goku but not before that.

"Right." Vegeta said finally before turning away to leave.

"Do you want me to take you to Cell with my Instant Transmission technique?" Goku asked, offering to help his fellow warrior.

"Oh please! I don't need any help from you, Kakarot." Vegeta replied with contempt as he began to power up for flight, "So long."

With that the person with the biggest ego on the planet took off into the air before descending towards the Earth and his next adversary. The future version of Trunks soon followed but not before Goku gave the youth the last of the Senzu beans they had. It would take at least another few days before the next batch had ripened enough to be safe to eat as well at their most potent. Hopefully no more than two would be needed but, with Vegeta involved, it was doubtful that the duo would get off that easily.

_Just so long as the Vegetable doesn't wind up making things worse I don't really care what happens to him._ He thought as he walked back to the edge of the lookout to resume his search for Xander and Android 18.

Vegeta being victorious might be possible but he'd prefer a more reliable victory in the form of the destruction of Android 18.

_**Pilaf's Castle, Sub-level Two, One Hour Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Well at least this wasn't a complete loss." He thought as he pocketed the case of Capsules that had been left behind.

Sure, the vehicles stored inside would be almost two decades out of date but since it looked like the seal on the case hadn't been broken they should all still be in perfect working order. He'd also found some water but that was pretty much the limit of what he could find that was still consumable and hadn't expired. Not what he was hoping for but it'd have to do until an opportunity arose for them to get something better. He might not plan to stay on the lam with the Android forever but there was no telling how long it'd take the others to get strong enough to kill Cell. It could only be a few hours or it could be a few days. He needed to buy the others as much time as he could and he couldn't do that if he keeled over from hunger or exhaustion. He was just about to go and see how 18 was doing with her exploration of the other rooms when he felt large ping on his ki senses that grabbed his attention immediately. At first he thought it was Cell but dismissed that as the signal didn't have that…unnatural feel to it that he always felt when he detected the monster using his power.

No, this ki was more familiar and it only took him a moment more to identify it.

Vegeta.

_Looks like the Prick of all Saiyans is finally out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and…yep, so is Trunks but at least he's trying to be subtle with his power level. _He thought as he attempted to peer into the depths of his relatives' powers to see if they had accomplished their task.

With the bulk of his focus he did his best to look past the surface to the truth that lay beneath and, while he didn't get the whole picture, he was certain he'd gotten enough to say that they were definitely stronger than before. Whether or not they'd be strong enough to finish off Cell, he honestly couldn't say for certain. He'd have to wait until one of them powered up before he could decide whether to sigh in relief or lower his head in defeat. If it turned out that Vegeta or Trunks had gotten strong enough to kill Cell, then this entire mess would be over with pretty much and all that would be left would be dealing with the big Android and 18.

That was where things got a little complicated.

For him at least.

He knew that for the others the solution was an easy one: destroy them both. For him though he was beginning to feel like killing both of them would be unnecessary and surprisingly enough it wasn't just those annoying feelings that had been popping up lately that made him say that. If both Trunks and Vegeta were now strong enough to kill Cell, someone easily five to ten times as strong as Eighteen was, then they'd already have a way to deal with both artificial humans if they got out of hand. Doubly so if Goku and Gohan managed to get just as strong from their training in the Chamber. No matter how cocky Android 18 was or how focused on the mission to kill Goku she was, both she and the Big Guy were smart enough to realize how stupid it'd be to try and kill someone beyond their ability to kill. He was fairly sure once both Androids got a good look at how much stronger Goku was and added on the presence of at least two others just was strong as the simpleton they'd back off. With a bit of luck the two might even become productive, law-abiding citizens since, in his mind, the only reason the 17 and 18 from Trunks' dimension went completely homicidal was because there were no consequences for them to fear. When you were the two strongest beings on the planet Earth with no one capable of lasting more than a minute or two with you in battle before coming to a messy end, a whole lot of options for fun opened up. Do that for a decade and your sense of right and wrong tended to turn to ash doing terrible things to your version of sanity at the same time. With Goku, Gohan and Vegeta around, steps could be taken to make it clear to Eighteen and her friend that there would be consequences if they started blowing shit up.

All he'd have to do was convince the others to not go with their first instinct when they met up again.

_Guess I better start thinking up a convincing argument._ He thought as he heard the footsteps of Android 18 approaching.

"You sense that?" she asked as she attempted to get the dirt off her face.

While the lower levels of Pilaf's castle might have been in relatively good condition, considering they'd had a giant ape stomping on them, they were not clean and so getting dirty was to be expected. Of course whether it was programming or something more, Eighteen had all the characteristics of a young woman her age and that meant getting dirty was not of the good.

"Yep. Looks like Vegeta and Trunks have finished their training." He said as he took a couple of steps towards her.

"Training?" enquired the female Android with a raised eyebrow.

"Yep." He said before stomping down any desire to say more, "With a little bit of luck they'll be strong enough to kill Cell sometime in the next few hours."

_Assuming Vegeta doesn't let his ego take the wheel, of course._ He thought barely keeping a frown from showing on his face.

As soon as he thought that, he new he'd have to bank on Trunks being the one to kill Cell because the odds of Vegeta **not** giving into his ego were so bad he'd be an idiot to think that the Prick would actually do the right thing and ignore it. That, of course, led to the whole issue of whether or not the Trunks from the future would have the strength of will to fight and if need be kill his own father to do what needed to be done. Probably not. The kid had a boatload of issues that stemmed from the fact that he'd never gotten to know his dad firsthand growing up. The young man had only learned through his mother what sort of person Vegeta was and he wasn't stupid enough to believe that older Bulma hadn't colored the truth a bit for her son's sake. Until the purple haired teen got it shoved into his face what sort of person his father really was and accepted it, he couldn't be relied upon to seriously harm his Dad.

"You really think that one year will make those two strong enough to beat Cell?" Android 18 asked with scepticism plain to hear in her voice, "You know how strong that monster is especially since he… ate 17."

Obviously she was still having a hard time coming to terms with the death of her 'sibling' at Cell's hands but he found it encouraging that she was capable of such emotions. One would think that a killing machine would only be capable of expressing emotions that would facilitate the accomplishing of a mission. Caring for a teammate like this for any longer than a few moments would be seen as a hindrance, especially by someone as hate-centered as Gero. So either the Doc screwed up the programming or there was more to the blonde bombshell than anyone thought.

"Never underestimate a Saiyan determined to be the strongest in existence." He replied with a smirk at how crazy his cousin's training regime had likely been in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, "Vegeta wouldn't have left unless he was sure he was powerful enough to turn you, Cell and your giant sized buddy into spare parts."

Of course when the asshole's ego came into play he tended to overestimate his own strength to varying degrees, often resulting in him being on the receiving end of an ass kicking. This was going to be the most likely outcome of the battle to come. He just hoped that the idiot didn't wind up costing them the entire planet in the process.

"I'll believe that when I see it." 18 declared making her scepticism clear, "There's nothing worth taking in the other rooms. We should get going."

He was disappointed at the lack of additional resources but in truth hadn't been expecting much to begin with. Whether it was because the little imp had taken most of the good stuff with him or if raiders had come by and stolen the more valuable bits he didn't know. In any case his travelling companion was right.

Time to move on.

"Alright. Let's get topside and then head South." He said as he picked up as much of the water bottles as he felt he could carry without aggravating his injuries too much.

"Why South?" Eighteen asked with genuine curiosity.

"Because North would take us too close to your old home and Cell might fly that way since he's in that general area at the moment." He replied before heading for the door.

Indeed thanks to the new level of power the abomination had acquired by absorbing Android 17, it was all too easy for him to pick out Cell's location. That and the fact that the monster was throwing temper tantrums every few minutes because of his search's lack of progress.

_That thing seriously needs some anger management classes._ He thought as he passed by Android 18.

Of course if the hot feeling on his ass was any indicator Eighteen need impulse control classes. Made him wonder if everything Gero created had a mental defect somewhere.

The fact that he was developing feelings for a machine never entered his mind, of course.

_**The Southern Region of the Diablo Desert, One Hour Later, Android 18's P.O.V**_

_Won't be long now._ Android 18 thought as her sensors tracked the ki signals being emitted by Cell and Vegeta, _Vegeta's gaining fast but it looks like Cell is using his ability to suppress his ki to try and 'surprise' us. Well the surprise is on him and so long as he keeps vanishing and reappearing it'll take some time before that arrogant Saiyan gets close enough to do anything._

In a way she was both glad about this fact and yet angry.

She was glad because, if Xander's words were true, then when the two forces collided Cell would be destroyed and Android 17's death would be avenged in full. A part of her wanted to be the one to deliver the killing blow but, unlike her devoured sibling, she was sensible enough to realize that she did not possess the power necessary for such an act. Even if Vegeta weakened the monster it was unlikely her most powerful blast would be able to pierce the abomination's head. Still, she took comfort in the fact that the greatest threat to her existence would be gone and justice done.

She was angry because, while she hadn't said anything, she knew how things would likely turn out after Cell was successfully destroyed. She and Android 16 would likely be destroyed by Goku or one of his allies to remove their threat to the planet and its inhabitants. She tried to figure out an argument or at least a reason she could put forth to convince them to spare her but nothing suitable came up. She could promise that she wouldn't harm any of the weak humans unless they **really** deserved it but they wouldn't believe her. She'd done too much already, such as beat the crap out of most of them, for them to trust anything she said. She could offer to leave Earth entirely for some world inhabited only by animals devoid of any sentience but she doubt they would believe her as she doubted very much she could muster the sincerity needed. After all, she liked clothes and the other things there were to experience on Earth. The idea of leaving them behind for some bizarre world where none of those things existed was one she instinctively rejected. Over and over again she tried to conceive of a line of reasoning or logic that would work on those do gooders but nothing quite fit right. It infuriated her to think that all that she was doing right now was delaying her death by avoiding Cell and it almost made her want to ditch Xander to lose herself in the world.

It was a big planet, after all, and since she didn't emit a ki signal they wouldn't easily be able to find her.

However every time she was about to make good on that plan she stopped and laid back in her seat watching the scenery go by.

The reason?

Xander.

He'd risked his life protecting her, even though he'd had to have known that he stood to chance of beating Cell even before the creature's transformation. Even now he was trying to protect her by helping her stay beneath the radar of the being who sought her. Oh, she tried to discredit these actions by thinking that he was only doing it to keep Cell from becoming too strong to stop or that he'd be all for her being blown to bits once this was over with, but these thoughts never quite locked into place. Whether it was an odd look he gave her that was not consistent with someone doing something for altruistic reasons or her own desire to believe that she meant something more to him, she didn't know. It was ridiculous! She was a top of the line killing machine created to kill Goku and all of his friends! Even now that programming was flashing in front of her eyes and only the existence of Cell allowed her to suppress it as much as she was at the moment. After all, she couldn't fulfil her programming if she wound up some giant bug man's dinner, could she?

Yet… yet as much as she wanted to deny it, her desire to keep Xander around as a pet had expanded into something more. What that something was she couldn't really put a name to just yet but it was there in the back of her mind pulsing every time she looked at the young Saiyan. It intrigued her, enticed her and… maybe she had even grown to like it a bit. It was a splinter beneath her metaphorical skin and she knew that if she left without figuring out what exactly it was it would drive her as close to madness as a being such as herself could without completely losing it.

_Besides, if I'm going to hiding I might as well go into hiding with some company._ She thought looking out of the corner of her eye at the injured Saiyan in the passenger seat, _And I don't think I could have chosen better if I tried._

Indeed, no normal human would be worth her time and of those that had any real power on this planet Xander was the only one she thought would give her a fair shake when this was all over with. He wasn't stuck in the whole hero mentality that demanded that the 'evil androids' be destroyed but neither was he controlled by how things could go in the future if things went wrong. He was more… practical in how he thought. So long as the viable way of stopping her existed, she believed he would be willing to let her go free to make a life for herself. What sort of life would that be? Honestly she didn't have a clue. Probably boring more often than not since she wouldn't be able to blow things up without a damn good reason, but she **guessed** that being bored was preferable to being dead.

Maybe.

Looking over at Xander, though, she couldn't help but wonder if he could perhaps make her tamer existence a little more bearable.

"So what's your story?" she asked, deciding against being direct with the Saiyan, "Gero didn't have any files on you."

He raised his eyebrow in slight surprise but then seemed to mentally shrug at her question.

"Well, biologically I'm Goku's brother and Vegeta's cousin." He replied with little reservation, "However the rest might be a little hard for you to believe."

"Try me." She said, not willing to let him go after letting on that he was the brother of her primary target.

"Well up until three years ago I was living in another dimension and didn't even know that I was anything more than an ordinary human being." He explained before sliding into a story that was bizarre even for her.

Growing up as a normal human being, finding out that monsters really existed, being sucked through a portal only to wind up back in the reality he'd been born in and then training for three years straight to beat the 'evil androids'. Still it was a point in his favor that he was raised with a different point of view than than the rest of Goku's allies. Not that it made him naïve or anything, fighting demons didn't sound like it nurtured trust in the unknown, but it made him less likely to act rashly before getting all the facts. Of all of Goku's allies, the only one she thought might behave the same would be the Namek but even if Piccolo was more rational the time spent on the dark side made the green man favor more permanent ways of dealing with enemies.

"So you planning on going back to this other dimension?" she asked casually, as though it didn't matter to her one way or another.

"Yeah. I might've been born in this dimension but Sunnydale is home as far as I'm concerned." Xander replied with a distant look on his face, "Oh, I'll make trips back here every once in awhile for birthdays, holidays and if they need help against the next Big Bad. After all, I'm sure if Bulma can cook up a dimensional doorway she can make it so that it works both ways."

Made sense.

While Gero wasn't about to say that there was someone else smarter than him, there was always something approaching respect the few times he mentioned the Brief family. It never lasted, of course. During the times the madman toiled away in his lab, if he wasn't ranting about killing Goku he was gloating over how brilliant he was. Needless to say everyone capable of hearing him tuned him out after the first hour or so. Still, the Brief family was the only scientific threat Gero felt was worth mentioning and that meant that they had to be pretty smart as well as good at what they do.

"You could probably come with me if you wanted." Xander stated after a couple false starts hindered by hesitation.

This she did **NOT** expect.

"What?" she asked barely managing to conceal her surprise.

"Well… I just thought that… you might not want to stick around an Earth where people look at you like you're a single mistake away from them trying to turn you into scrap." He explained looking a little awkward at the same time, "So I figured as long as you don't set off more explosions than a big budget action movie back home, it'd be an option worth considering."

While it did surprise her that he made the offer she could see the appeal of it nonetheless. Did she really want to stay on this world assuming that the rest of Goku's merry band 'deigned' to let her live? Personally she didn't much care what other people thought of her and their looks might get annoying over time but she was capable of ignoring thing she didn't like. However the Namek and the others would likely watch her like a group of hawks and the second they thought she was going to become a problem they'd be all over her. So in her honest opinion, a vacation to another dimension might be just what she needed, especially since the only person that could become a threat to her was Xander.

_But I'm sure I can __**persuade**__ him to go easy on me._ She thought as an amused grin appeared on her face, _Unless I want it __**hard,**__ that is._

She couldn't repress the chuckle at the shudder he exhibited after seeing her grin.


	17. Pride goeth before before destruction

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. All of it belongs to the creators and companies responsible for bringing us such fun shows. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write for my own enjoyment and for those who have fun reading my fanfics.

_**Looking Down at a Devastated Island, Thirty Minutes Later, Vegeta's P.O.V**_

"This is pathetic, Cell! I was expecting a much harder fight, a chance to test my new powers to their fullest, and all I've see so far are a lot of ham-fisted tactics and nowhere near the power Kakrot and the others blathered about," Vegeta snarled with contempt as he looked down at the monstrosity that was just now pulling itself out of the ground. "If you don't get serious soon I may just get bored and end this little fight **permanently**."

Indeed it was getting to be rather boring bouncing the bug man around the chain of islands that remained intact from the creature's earlier rampage. It had been amusing at first as he watched his attacks devastate his opponent both mentally as well as physically, but the fun had begun to wear off and now it was time for him to make a decision: finish off the half-assed science project now or give the weakling a chance to pull a rabbit out of his hat? Decisions, decisions, decisions... He was about to taunt the overgrown mosquito once more when the creature again tried to defeat him with its artificial power. Snorting at the stupidity of the test tube freak, he decided just to use his speed to evade Cell's attacks while he tried to think of a way to make things interesting. Perhaps use only his feet to fight? Or maybe restrict himself to long range ki attacks? It might just make things a little harder for him but he was less than optimistic about whether or not it'd be enough to keep him amused for more than ten minutes.

Finally bored with dodging Cell's attacks, he used a single burst of speed to get behind his foe, grabbed ahold of the absurd tail the monstrosity likely got from Freiza's DNA and used it to hurl the monster back down to the island it had so recently extricated itself from.

As the seconds ticked by without so much as a speck of unnatural greenness amidst the rubble, he let out a sigh of disappointment since he hadn't even utilized even half of the new techniques he'd devised while inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. There was still so much he wanted to try out, so much he wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of, but it was looking more and more like the little mass of DNA would perish after the next five devised techniques were executed. It appeared that he'd surpassed all expectations and all goals resulting in him possessing a power level that rendered a threat even Kakarot feared meaningless to him.

He couldn't help but smirk at this and that smirk turned into a triumphant grin as he realized that he had truly become the most powerful warrior in all of existence. None could stand against him! As soon as he finished with Cell he would take his time and wait to see of Kakarot had become any stronger after a year's worth of training. After all, while he would kill the clown regardless of the results of the training, it would be distinctly more satisfying if Kakrot could at least put up a better fight than Cell was at the moment. Yes! A clash between two of the three remaining pureblooded Saiyans in a contest of strength where he could once and for all prove that he was the prince of all Saiyans.

_Perhaps I should allow Xander to join in the battle. He is, after all, my half-brother and has progressed nicely in his training,_ he thought as he watched Cell finally pop out of the ground. _Indeed, despite being raised in some primitive alternate dimension, he has retained the proper mindset of a member of the Saiyan Royal Family._

While the young warrior did possess some qualities that hampered his development and likely would have resulted in an assignment to some minor quadrant of the galaxy as overlord, they were nowhere near as contemptuous as Kakarot's behavior. With a bit of proper instruction he would make a suitable partner to replace that bald oaf Nappa and together they would lay down the foundation of a new Saiyan empire. Without Freiza, without Kakarot and without Cell there would be no one who could stand in their way. It was a most appealing dream and one that he decided he would make a reality but first he would finish off the bug on the ground below him.

"Well, I think that we've reached the end of our **little** battle, Cell," he taunted as he landed gracefully onto the ground twenty feet away from the creature of science. "I've proven beyond a reasonable doubt that you cannot touch my power and any further fighting would be a waste of my time. It's time of you to take a one way trip to another dimension."

"Rrrrr! You wouldn't be so cocky if I was complete!" Cell growled with a few remaining embers of defiance still burning brightly in its eyes. "If I could just absorb Andoird 18 into my body and undergo my final metamorphosis, snuffing out your life will be as simple as breathing!"

The laboratory reject had been bellyaching about completing its transformation almost from the first blow but he had simply ignored it as the whinings of the weak. After all, it was oh-so-typical of those who'd been exposed as the weaklings they truly were to come up with excuse after excuse to explain their unexpected descent in status. It could be amusing under the right circumstances but most of the time it annoyed him enough to blast the simpering worm's head off just to see an end to it. He was even now considering just how to shut up the fool before him but couldn't quite figure out which method would be an appropriate conclusion to this little event.

"In fact, why don't you let me absorb Android 18?" Cell asked with a scheming look on his face. "After all, if you're truly the most powerful warrior in the galaxy right now then it won't matter what I do. At the very least I would provide you with a better opportunity to showcase your new powers by attain my final perfect form."

This made him pause to consider the idea.

It was true that the Cell before him now was much more powerful than the one he'd sensed in Ginger Town and, if this power increase was tied to the absorption of one of the two androids, then devouring the remaining one, logically, would have a similar effect. In fact he'd wager that it could very well place the being before him on a level just a little below where Trunks was at the moment and would certainly be a better fight then what he'd experienced thus far.

"C'mon Vegeta! Surely a Saiyan of your status must hunger for true challenge," Cell persuaded without losing the look on his face. "Give me the opportunity to absorb Android 18 and I promise you a battle most satisfying."

It was a proposal that was increasingly appealing to him but he couldn't allow this mongrel to think that he was so easily persuaded into adopting another's course of action.

"You talk a good game, Cell, but it still sounds like the mewling of a baby to me."

This, of course, set the monstrosity off screaming as it let its power pour out chaotically all around him, tearing up more of the island as the seconds passed by. As the silence returned he wondered if the creature would continue with its half-baked scheme or if it would run off like the coward it truly was. After a minute, though, he could hear the amalgamation of DNA muttering to itself again about how superior it would be if could just absorb the final android. It looked as though it was going to resume blathering and pleading but hopefully it would try something a little more complex. He was no mere country bumpkin to be taken in by a few sweet sounding words and an empty promise. In the end he chose to dangle a bit of hope in front of the creature to see if it would meet his expectations or crawl upon the ground like a worm.

"Are you certain that you could become stronger if you absorbed the final android?" He asked, sounding doubtful when in truth he was giving the idea serious consideration.

"Indeed I would and it would be a challenge worthy of a Saiyan prince," Cell replied a flicker of hope returning to its eyes. "You would truly be able to test the depths of your power and show everyone on this little mudball who truly stands at the top of the proverbial ladder."

He didn't care about most of the insects on this world but if he could prove to Kakarot and the rest of his merry band how strong he'd truly become, **that** would truly be great. No more would they constantly treat that **clown** as the most powerful being on the planet and he would finally be free of that one humiliating defeat once and for all.

"Just let me go. It won't take long and then I'll come back so we can pick up where we left off." Cell implored as if sensing his objective getting closer.

In the end he decided that the little game was over with and it was time to let his decision be known.

"Fine. Go off and find that bitch of an Android." He said sounding like he could have just as easily gone the other way. "But if you keep me waiting too long then the deal's off. Got it!"

"I understand completely and I assure you it won't take long at all." Cell said as he rose into the air.

"It certainly won't because I'm going to give you a helping hand just to make sure." He said as he reached into a hidden pocket on the inside of his chest armor.

Pulling out the shiny rectangular device he casually extended its antenna and began to type in the commands that would call up the information he needed.

"What is that?" Asked Cell, obviously not understanding what was happening before him.

"Simple. I'm tapping into Capsule Corporation's main computers at their headquarters and accessing that infuriating woman's personal email account." He replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, "It was easy, really, and no one suspected a thing. It never occurred to them that someone who'd grown up with technology decades, if not centuries, ahead of anything they have here would be capable of hacking into their systems. Fools!"

"And how will that help you?" Cell asked, still not understanding the brilliance of what he was doing.

"Because after spending a year in space with my naïve half-brother, I've come to know his habits quite well," he replied as the information finally began to scroll up onto the controller's viewscreen. "Even while hiding that femme-bot from you, he'll still be keeping in touch with his allies and sending them status reports which will include all sorts of interesting bit of information. Including his most recent location."

Skimming through the various messages he kept a close eye out for something that indicated it came from Xander. It took a couple of wrong hits before he found what he was looking for but eventually his superior intellect won out against his younger sibling.

_A cunning plan. Setting the messages on time delay so that you would be long gone by the time anyone reached the source of the message. _He thought with grudging respect for his half-sibling, _However you failed to realize one crucial fact, dear brother: that __**woman**__ always hides a little something extra in all of her company's products just as a precaution._

With four quick taps he initiated the trace program that would cause the Capsule Corps network to seek out and locate the source of the message he'd selected. It only took a few seconds but then the precise co-ordinates of his half-brother and that blasted female android came up along with the name of the nearest town. Turning the had device around so that Cell could read the display, he could tell precisely when the misshapen being had finished because, with as much speed as the fool had shown so far, it sped away in the direction of its prey. At that speed it would not take long before it reached the wilderness near that dimwit Ox King's home. When that happened it would be at most five minutes before the female Android was consumed and then what would most likely be the most interesting fight to date would begin.

At least that was his plan but, as he saw the future version of his son Trunks appear in Cell's path, it became obvious that the punk had a problem with that plan.

_Damned child! _He thought with anger as he imagined the bother he would have to go through to get the brat to back down.

"You might have tricked my father into letting you go but I won't be fooled so easily!" Trunks yelled loud enough to be heard even from a distance. "You're not taking one step more, Cell!"

With a pathetic lack of success Cell tried to get around the half-breed, no doubt thinking that the odds of encountering someone else capable of beating him black and blue were slim, only to be given brutal examples of just how impossible victory truly was. While a part of him was willing to let the youth have his fun, the knowledge that Trunks would very likely kill the creature in the end obliterating any chance he had to truly experience the limits of his power. Watching as punches were thrown and ki blasts were unleashed, the outcome of the fight became ever more clear with his chance at a truly interesting fight slipping away. With a growl of frustration, he raised his ki level and moved to intercept his wayward son before he could land another blow. With a look of surprise on his face his son was easily kicked into the nearby hillside at least a good thirty feet down at a diagonal angle. Looking over at the bug thing, he was quite happy to see that it had finally gotten its act together and was flying at high speed towards his prey.

He was about to casually follow when the hill he'd kicked his son into exploded with a wave of golden energy. Rising from the earth that was falling to the ground, Trunks looked determined to persist in his efforts to obstruct Cell and so he decided that something a little more forceful was required to get the message across to the brat. With a slight increase in his power level he began to rain down ki blasts on the boy, intent on leaving wounds serious enough to make stopping Cell impossible. With his ki sensing ability sharp enough to keep track of his offspring, he could tell that his attacks were hitting their mark but with only a bit of surprise he discovered that the teenager was actually managing to put up some resistance. At this rate it would take him twice as long to inflict the damage he desired and that could mean missing the transformation of Gero's bug into its 'perfect form'.

Raising his right arm and pointing his open palm towards the location of his son, he gathered his power and yelled, "BIG BANG ATTACK!"

With only a flash of white light the white sphere flew from his and, like an arrow shot from a bow, impacted on his son's form, unleashing its terrible power. It wouldn't be enough to kill the young man, of course, but it would successfully take much of the wind out of his sails, thus giving Cell a nice, healthy lead. Indeed his senses informed him that the giant bug had already managed to reach the halfway point and would arrive at Xander's location shortly. Setting off in the same direction at a speed that would allow him to arrive just in time for the big finale, he began to speculate in his mind just how much of a challenge a fully evolved Cell could be.

Suffice it to say that his imagination was able to come up with quite a few appealing scenarios in no time at all.

_**Hovering in the Middle of the Air Over East City, Same Time, Krillin's P.O.V**_

_Oh yeah! I got the controller needed to shut down androids but it's useless if I can't find the last one! _Krillin thought sarcastically as he looked around with his ki senses for any sign of where Xander was.

He knew that one of the androids had already been consumed based on the gigantic jump in power he'd sensed hours ago from Cell but that still meant that there was one more still out there. If the monster got his hands on that one and absorbed it, he doubted very much that anyone would be able to stop the killing machine. Under normal circumstances, his faith in his friends, especially Goku, was unshakable when it came to saving the Earth against whatever threatened it but these were far from normal circumstances. In Cell they weren't facing just one foe or even a group of enemies, but rather the strengths of every powerful fighter their band of warriors had ever faced. More than ever he was feeling like his days of fighting shoulder to shoulder with his friends was coming to an end as the gap in power between them continued to grow. It'd started right after Vegeta first came to Earth and, while he'd done his best to keep up, he'd found it harder with every conflict to make a meaningful contribution to the struggle.

_I think… I think that when this is all over I'll finally throw in the towel and hang up my fighting clothes for good._ He thought with an acceptance that wasn't as hard to swallow as he'd thought it'd be.

Just as he was about to begin another pass over the area to the east, he suddenly picked up two enormous powers flying across the planet at speeds no plane or Capsule Corp vehicle could hope to match. It only took him a moment to recognize Vegeta's ki and the stench of Cell's energy was unmistakable, especially since the monster wasn't even bothering to hide his power level. They looked as though they were heading to a spot to the south of him but he wondered why they were going in that direction to begin with. Was Cell running away from the new and improved Vegeta? Had Vegeta been defeated and was only stubbornly chasing after the creature because of his idiotic pride? He didn't know the answers to those questions but he was getting a foul feeling in the pit of his stomach that something potentially very bad was hovering on the horizon.

Acting on a hunch, he took off heading for where he figured their destination probably was but did his best to keep his ki signature from being too obvious. It forced him to only go at seventy percent of his maximum flight speed but that couldn't be helped if he wanted to keep Cell from noticing him. Minutes ticked by and, by the time the total hit ten, he began to wonder if he'd made a mistake when he'd predicted their overall destination. However, just as he was about to run the numbers once more, Cell came to a stop over an area of wilderness that wasn't too far from the remains of Ox King's old castle. The monster hovered in the air but, as far as ki was concerned, there wasn't anything there that really significant there aside from the usual background noise if animals.

That all changed when, after several spikes of ki indicative of someone using energy attacks, a new power made itself known and the label his mind instantly identified who it was.

Xander.

_Oh __**NO!**__ Cell's found Xander!_ He thought with panic as he tried to grasp the repercussions of this discovery.

He knew from what he'd sensed while flying to meet up with Bulma to get the controller that Xander had taken some serious hits from the way that his ki signature had gone from Super Saiyan to Yamcha's level. He also thought he'd sensed the teenager suddenly go from the mountains near Kami's Lookout to someplace far away in an instant. He didn't know how it happened but, ever since that brief flicker between two points on map, he hadn't been able to sense Xander at all. He couldn't be sure but it was his present theory that either Goku had used his instant transmission technique to save his half-brother or Xander had learned how to do it himself. That he'd hidden his ki signature immediately afterwards made him think that he was hiding something… or maybe **someone**. It would be very bad indeed if his worst fears were right and that someone turned out to be the last android because unless the guy from another dimension had an ace up his sleeve there was no way he could beat Cell at his current level.

_I guess the time for staying low profile is over with!_ He thought as he brought his power level up to its maximum level and poured all of into in flying faster. _I gotta get there and use this controller to finish off the last android or we're all doomed!_

With his efforts gobbling up his energy at a high rate of speed, he arrived at the battlefield just in time to see Xander be blown from the sky by a potent ki blast. The funny guy managed to recover before hitting the ground but it was clear that he was staying in the fight with willpower alone and his Saiyan body was just managing to meet the demands the dimensional traveller was placing on it. For a moment he considered flying in to give some back up but shook that idea out of his head since he doubted it'd do any good. Instead he used his eyes to search for the remaining android so he could take advantage of the valiant effort Xander was putting forth and foil the artificial abomination's plans. Moving slowly so as not to draw attention to himself, he looked over every inch of the land below carefully for any sign of the androids, be it a mix of black and blue or a mass of blonde hair. With the sounds of a battle filling his ears, he knew time was running out as the grunts, groans and exclamations of pain from Xander were getting more frequent. Fortunately, as his eyes passed over some of the few remaining trees, he saw a flicker of blonde hair and when his eyes focused on that spot elation filled his body as he confirmed the location of Android 18.

Immediately heading for the ground, he suppressed his ki signature as much as he could once he touched down and then began to sneak towards Android 18's location with as much stealth as he could muster. According to Bulma, he needed to get pretty close to the android to use it, something like ten meters he thought the girl genius had said, and that meant not letting her know he was there until it was too late. Darting from boulder to tree to bush in the most direct path to where he'd seen the female machine, he took a moment at each hiding place to listen for any sign that he'd been heard. With every negative he came up with he moved closer to his goal until eventually when he peeked out from behind the latest boulder he'd ducked behind he saw the teenage machine just a bit ahead of him. Lady luck seemed to be with him because she was so focused on the fight going on in the air above he could probably walk right up behind her completely unnoticed so long as he didn't make a loud enough noise. With this bit of luck in mind, he began to carefully move to a position that would allow him to approach her from the rear so even if she heard something it would take her a couple of seconds to turn around and see what it was.

_Just a little more, just a little more, and I can end this nightmare right here and now!_ He thought as he got closer to his ultimate sneaking vector.

It was minutes later that he was finally ready to make his approach and it wasn't a moment too soon because, with a thunderous crash, something plummeted from the sky and hit the ground enough to make a decent sized crater. For a moment he hoped that it was Cell and that Xander had somehow managed to pull the mother of all aces but, when the dust settled, his hopes were dashed. Shakily forcing himself to his feet was none other than the half-brother of Goku and the guy looked like he was minutes away from giving into his body's screaming for unconsciousness. He didn't know how much more the teenager had left in him but he knew the time he had for deactivating Android 18 had just been cut viciously in half. Picking up the pace of his sneaking, he soon found himself in prime position to use the controller and, after a deep breath, he pointed the device Bulma had given him at its target with his left hand and prepared to press the big red button with his right hand.

However, before he could carry out the act that would put an end to Cell's evolution, a narrow ki blast obliterated the controller in one shot and burnt his left hand in the process.

Due to the shock of what'd just happened he momentarily forgot himself as he frantically shook his left hand to get rid of the burning sensation. However it didn't last and when he looked back in the direction he believed the energy attack had come from surprise overtook him as he saw Vegeta standing next to a tree to his right twenty feet away.

"Uh-uh-uhhh! You're not going to ruin my fun with some toy that infuriating woman made." Vegeta said mockingly before a more serious look graced his features. "I will not be denied the opportunity to show this entire pathetic planet just how powerful I truly am."

_The __**arrogance**__ of this guy! Doesn't he realize he's just doomed us all!_ He thought with anger as he looked down at the scorched remnants of Bulma's controller, _No! Of course not! That would take the ability to think of someone other than himself!_

Before he could yell at the cocky bastard and tell him off, the so called 'Prince of all Saiyans' turned to Cell and said, "Will you just absorb this android already! Just kick that idiot into the next time zone and by the time he gets back you'll be complete."

"Hmmm. As you wish." Cell said as he looked from Vegeta to the barely standing Xander, "However I think I'll allow the jester to witness his failure as it occurs. It will make my final evolution all the more satisfying."

With those words a blur of movement and a single blow to Xander's jaw was enough to knock the teenage Saiyan onto his stomach in a dazed state. It was amazing that the young man was still conscious after a hit like that but it was also abundantly clear that it would take time for Xander to get his brain working right again.

Time they didn't have.

_Not unless I give everything I've got to buy that time._ He thought as he clenched his fists in preparation for battle, _Even then I don't think we'll be able to hold out more than ten minutes before this monster puts us in our graves. I hope the others have figured out what's going on and send help or else…this will be the beginning of the end._

Summoning up all his remaining courage he raised his power level up all the way, he charged Cell head on in one final **desperate** attempt to defy what seemed inevitable.

_**The Wilderness West of the Site of Ox King's Castle, Half an Hour Ago, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Oh CRAP!" he exclaimed as he sensed Cell's power approaching at an unbelievable rate of speed.

"What is it?" Android 18 asked, sounding worried.

"Cell's heading right for us! He'll be here in **minutes**!" He replied as his mind frantically tried to think of the best way to handle this shocking development.

"Then teleport us someplace else like you did last time!" 18 exclaimed as she realized that her potential doom was approaching.

"It wouldn't do any good! Last time we had Piccolo, Tien and your big buddy to distract him long enough so we could vacate before he could get there!" He pointed out as he had no doubt that the monster would be able to find them no matter where he took them.

Possibility after possibility was reviewed in his mind but each one lacked a certain something that would make him believe it'd work. As the pressure began to get to him, he hit upon a plan that was simple yet dangerous but represented the best chance for keeping 18 out of Cell's hands.

"Get into the forest! Go at least twenty feet in! NOW!" He said as he moved himself away from the forest so he would easily be spotted by the monster that was almost on top of them. "Hide behind a tree or a bush! Anything! Don't come out until he's definitely gone!"

For a moment the female android looked hesitant but it only lasted for a short time before she ran into the forest as he'd told her to. She had the easy part of the plan, though, and whether his idea succeeded or failed depended on him being able to successfully sell a load of shit to Cell when he arrived. He'd like to think that all the time he'd spent covering for Buffy and Willow back home in Sunnydale would help but, in truth, lying to people already repressing the truth about Sunnydale was easy. Lying to a homicidal creature bent on devouring someone he l— was responsible for would be an entirely different ballgame altogether. Taking a deep breath, he did his best to settle his nerves and remove all trace of emotion from his face. With a bit of luck this would keep any tells he might exhibit to a minimum, thus increasing the likelihood that his lie would appear to be the truth. By the time he had finished his preparations he could hear the sound of a powerful ki field quickly approaching and, when he looked up into the sky, his eyes met the blue ones belonging the creature known as Cell.

"You surprise me, Harris. I would have expected you to be running for your life with Android 18 right now, or maybe trying to use that cute disappearing act you used before," Cell said conversationally as he descended a couple of feet.

"Who's to say I haven't, Cell?" He asked before doing his best impression of a confident Vegeta.

"An admirable try at bluffing but I know that when you teleport your ki level spikes both at the beginning as well as at the end." Cell said with a bit of a chuckle. "I sensed neither and I seriously doubt that you'd teleport away only to come back here to meet me. Even you aren't stupid enough to think you stand a chance of beating me in my current form."

"Not a bad line of logic. It's missing a piece but I suppose that's the Freiza in you." He said, not letting his confident posture slip in the slightest, "The truth is the only reason you were able to follow after us when we left was because I was in more than a little bit of pain. Using the technique requires a certain level of concentration and focus, otherwise there's some energy spillover. That's what you probably picked up on. This time there was none."

"This time?" Cell asked with the first traces of worry on his face.

"Yep. As soon as I picked up your ki signal heading this way, I teleported her someplace safe and then came back here. I figured out that I was actually helping you by sticking with her so we've gone our separate ways," he replied, letting his grin get a bit bigger. "Now you'll never find her. She has no ki for you to sense so you won't be able to track her down. It's **over,** Cell!"

This put a solid crack in the monster's composure and anger began to seep out as the insectoid man began to realize that his chance at completing his evolution just might have slipped away. However there was still some confidence there and that was pretty much what he'd expected from the very beginning. The monster was too obsessed with his mission to give up after a couple of verbal exchanges and that made it pretty predictable what was going to happen next.

"Not quite, Xander. **You** know where 18 is and you're going to tell me." Cell said with a cocky smile firmly back in place.

"Not going to happen. Not even over my cold dead body, you overgrown cockroach!" He growled as he powered up as much as he could without aggravating his wounds to the point where he couldn't fight.

"Is the court jester going to fight me?" Cell asked with mock concern in his voice. "I'm **SO** afraid!"

He couldn't blame the abomination above him for not showing any concern because, at the moment, he'd estimate his power level to be at just about the same level as Tien's. That might be enough to stall the biological behemoth but no way in hell was it enough to actually defeat Cell, which he'd known that going into the fight. In fact, he very much expected this to be his last fight. He couldn't beat Gero's ultimate creation and he wouldn't tell the killing machine where he could find Android 18, so that pretty much meant he was going to be beaten to death. Still, if it sold the deception and kept Cell from becoming complete then it'd be a worthy sacrifice as well as one he'd have no trouble making.

"You should be!" He yelled before unleashing a barrage of ki blasts at his foe.

Naturally none of them hit but at least his enemy was evading the attacks rather than just standing there and taking them. It meant that the bug was in the mood to play and draw things out rather than getting it over with as soon as possible. This worked in his favour, especially if he got the chance to tell the second part of his grand deception: that he'd tossed Android 18 onto a Capsule Corp spaceship before firing her off into space. Outer space was a lot bigger than Earth and not knowing which direction the spaceship had gone in it made for a feasible course of action. If Lady Luck chose to shine on him, Cell would actually take off into space looking for Android 18 and would stay there for at least a month or three. That would be more than enough time for the good guys to either get strong enough to beat him or come up with a scientific means of destroying the creature. For now, though, he had to press the attack and make sure the monster believed he was truly giving it his all or else Cell might suspect something.

Shooting up into the air, he began to rain blow after blow down on Gero's creation but either they were blocked or they missed entirely. This did not deter him in the least but it did prompt him to use some of the more complex combos he'd learned from Goku and Vegeta during the time he'd trained with each of them, something that gave him slightly better results as the level of blocks quickly began to outnumber the frequency of times the creature evaded. Even as he attacked, though, he kept a close watch on how the scientific sociopath moved and filed that information away for later on the off chance he survived the beating he was expecting. It wasn't much since it was obvious that Cell wasn't even putting forth half of his maximum effort but he'd take whatever info he could get from this little drama he'd started.

Too bad that the abomination's patience wore out a couple of minutes later because it proved to be quite difficulty to think when you were getting pounded.

The speed. The **strength**!

It was all he could do to keep the more dangerous blows from landing with enough force to achieve their full damage potential. Counterattacking was a rare thing for him and most of the opportunities that appeared before him he was fairly certain had been given to him by Gero's creation. A part of his Saiyan mind boiled at the idea of being disrespected in such a manner but he tried not to let that part influence his moves. He'd seen a perfect example of what could happen to a fighter if they let their anger or their arrogance get the better of them when he'd trained with Vegeta. He would blast his own head off before he'd let himself fall into the same trap as the Prick of all Saiyans!

Executing a quick burst of speed, he tried to get behind the asshole to deliver a surprise attack but Cell knew that trick as well and, before he could do more than turn around, he got slammed with a ki blast. Disorientation and incoherency swamped his mind for a time but with the same willpower that'd kept him in the fight when others would have backed down he forced his mind to work properly again. Recognizing the fact that he was falling, he quickly exerted just enough ki to halt his descent and orient himself so that his feet were pointed at the ground.

_Damn that hurt!_ He thought as he tried to block out the pain from the burns the ki attack had inflicted him. _Still I gotta keep fighting!_

Propelling himself back at Cell, he resumed his offensive and this time tried to mix in a few point blank ki blasts of his own to keep things unpredictable. The bad thing about it, though, was the fact that rapid fire ki blasts didn't have half as much punch to them as the ones that needed charging but he seriously doubted that the monstrous villain before him would give him the time needed.

Hopefully the energy would at least temporarily blind the creature.

"Well, this has been interesting, Xander, but I've grown tired of our little game." Cell said after putting some distance between the two of them. "I hope you won't mind if I finish things up."

With that the demonic-looking being appeared to vanish but it was obviously a case of enhanced speed and so he instantly tried to pin down where his opponent had gone.

He needn't have bothered.

With more power than anything he'd felt in his life, something struck him right in the stomach, displacing organs and causing no small bit of pain. Still, they said misery loves company and another blow hit him in the back, though he was pretty sure that the misery was supposed to be in two separate bodies rather than all in one. He didn't have much time to contemplate things further as more pain was visited on him and even the few instinctive blocks that did their job did little to ease the suffering he was going through. He could feel the bones in his skeleton cracking with every strike that impacted his body and the pain he was feeling made his earlier fight with the previous version of Cell seem like nothing. After what seemed like eternity he was given some relief from the constant bombardment of blows but, naturally, there had to be an exclamation point on the whole thing and it came in the form of him hitting the ground at high speed. So forceful was it that it actually enough to numb his body for a few seconds but, once his pain receptors finished taking their breather, they resumed their job of informing him about just how badly he was beat up. Stifling the pain so as not to give the bastard up the air the satisfaction of hearing him scream, he had to wonder just how much longer he could keep up this charade he had going. He seriously doubted there was a single part of his body that wasn't injured in some way and, as he worked to get back on his feet, he found that more than a few parts protested. No doubt they wanted to do nothing but rest and recuperate but he couldn't throw in the towel just yet.

_I might be close to selling my scam but it's going to take just a bit more to seal the deal._ He thought as he tried to evaluate what ways of fighting he had left.

This thought process was derailed when his pain-flooded mind picked up a surge of ki and then a flash of golden light caused him to look into the woods where the female android was hiding. What he saw thrust fear into his heart as Android 18 was standing out in the open for all to see, including Cell. This was bad enough but when he looked at the two behind her, he seriously began to wonder if he'd offended a deity in this dimension. On the one hand there was Krillin whose hands looked like something had blown up in them and his mind came up with some possibilities as to what it'd been. The other was the arrogant Vegeta, standing not too far off with his usual arrogant smirk firmly pasted on his face for all to see.

"Will you just absorb this android already! Just kick that idiot into the next time zone and by the time he gets back you'll be complete." Vegeta griped as he turned to look at Cell.

_H-he didn't! Oh, who am I kidding! Of course that bastard did!_ He thought with anger as he realized what had happened. Of course Vegeta had sold him out to Cell in order to satisfy his ridiculous ego!

It had been a foolish hope but he'd thought that the chance existed that Vegeta would for once do the right thing and beat Cell promptly as well as efficiently. He should have known that the moron would follow the usual pattern, which was that the second the Prick of all Saiyans achieved any sort of power increase, his ego took firm control over his actions. It made it all too easy to manipulate and, to date, had always resulted in the jackass getting his butt handed to him by the enemy. At present he wouldn't care one bit if his fellow Saiyan was killed for his arrogant action, but the fool's betrayal put the fate of an entire world in danger.

"Hmmm. As you wish," Cell said as he looked back in his direction. "However I think I'll allow the jester to witness his failure as it occurs. It will make my final evolution all the more satisfying."

He didn't get a chance to put in his two cents since something slammed into his jaw, throwing his mind into a white haze of incoherency. He didn't even feel the impact as he hit the ground but, seeing as how his senses started to return to him, the force of the impact had been enough to force his mind to reboot. However this would do him little good for, while he could once more perceive the world around him, his body refused to obey the commands he sent it. He couldn't even cause a twitch to occur in one of his limbs and it was only a random bit of luck that his head was facing the right direction to view what would happen next.

Helpless to do anything but glare furiously, he watched as the monstrous Cell stalked towards Android 18, who stood no chance at all of evading her fate.

A fate she'd been locked into by the arrogant actions of one pure blooded Saiyan warrior named Vegeta.

_**Same Place, Same Time, Android 18's P.O.V**_

Fear.

It was something she recalled feeling when she was fully human, something she'd felt as she suffered under Dr. Gero's less than gentle upgrading, but it hadn't been present at first after the old man had awakened her and her sibling to defeat his enemies. No, after she'd woken up and realized she could move as she willed, all she'd felt was a burning desire to free herself from the fossil once and for all. To that end she'd defeated all who'd dare stand in her way and done her best to convince Android 17 to quit wasting time with his whimsical distractions. She had only been partially successful in that regard but, aside from that, all had gone swimmingly as not a one of Goku's friends had proven to be more than a distraction for her. As such, she'd believed that killing the target designated would be easy with the only bother being actually finding the one they sought.

That all changed when she first saw Cell and learned of what that monster's objective was.

At first she'd been confident in the power she possessed, as well as the power of her sibling, but when each attack against the creature proved useless, fear began to creep its way into her heart. She and 17 were supposed to be the most powerful beings on the entire planet but instead they had found themselves to be mere components intended for another. After her sibling had been consumed, she had thought that the same fate would soon befall her but she was saved by the one who had been in her thoughts since the day she'd met him. However her momentary relief did not last and, as time passed while she hid with Xander, her fear tormented her from within. Every noise, every flash of movement caused it to spike as she thought for half a second that Cell had found them. She did her best to hide it, to maintain the cold, indifferent attitude that would make her appear untouchable, and as far as she knew Xander had not seen through her façade. But now she was once again face to face with the monstrosity that had started out as a glimmer in Gero's mind and she was alone.

Xander had been beaten near into unconsciousness and Goku's ally, Krillin, wasn't fairing any better as he desperately tried to fight Cell. It was pathetic really. The bald midget didn't have half the power the Saiyan possessed even in his weakened state, so really what hope did the human have of accomplishing **anything**. There was a reason why neither she nor her brother had attacked the little man and it wasn't because of Xander's deal or because the vertically challenged weakling hadn't attacked him. It was because Krillin was so weak he wasn't worth even expending the smallest amount of energy attacking or killing him. As such, it wasn't unreasonable of her to think that the little man stood no chance of beating Cell or even slowing him down. Turning around, she decided that the time had come for her to make a break for it. All she needed to do was get out of Cell's direct line of sight for a second and she could fly away. As Xander had mentioned earlier, the giant bug man did not appear to have the ability to track her with anything but his eyes so, if she could just get out of sight for a couple of seconds, she'd make it.

"Where do you think you're going?" Asked a cocky voice before a blow to her stomach sent her skidding along the ground for a couple of feet.

Pushing the pain from the blow aside, she looked up to see that it had been a golden-haired Vegeta would had knocked her to the ground. He had a grin on his face that made it clear the fool's ego had grown to an unparalleled size and that he didn't feel threatened in the least by her. The ki sensors Gero had installed inside of her told her that he had increased in strength dramatically from when she'd fought him last time and doubt existed within as to whether or not she could fight her way past him.

In the end, though, she had to try because the alternative was to wait for Krillin to be defeated and then be devoured by the atrocious abomination. With yell of defiance signalling her charge on the arrogant Saiyan, she used the files she had on the asshole to plan out the most effective way to get him out of her way. Raising her energy supply to maximum output, she unleashed a barrage of kicks and punches that would have obliterated the Saiyan before but now were being evaded as though she were a mere child. This did not deter her because she knew that the moment Krillin fell she would find herself fighting two powerful enemies rather than one and that would destroy her last hope of survival. Darting back in a way that she hoped was unexpected, she fired off an energy blast at fifty percent strength at the arrogant Saiyan. With a thunderous explosion it hit the fool, filling the air with smoke and debris but she didn't wait for it to settle, just in case Vegeta survived her blast. She now had to use the obscured air as cover to get away. Flying off at an angle that would take her away at the two villains who desired an end to her life she felt the hope within her grow as she encountered no opposition for several seconds.

She should have known better than to assume success before she actually had it in her grasp.

The second she cleared the cloud of smoke and debris, a sizeable mass streaked down from the sky, slammed into her back and pushed her six feet into the ground. Her systems, both mechanical and biological, flickered violently for several seconds and, just as both began to return to normal, she felt a hand pull her out of the ground by her vest.

"An admirable try… for a glorified toaster oven, that is." Vegeta's growled from behind her before she was thrown to the ground. "However you should realize by now that you have about as much chance of escaping your fate as you do of defeating me."

Getting to her knees she could feel the damage to her body even as her systems caused the specifics to scroll up her optics. While not broken, her back had taken a serious hit and it was almost unbearable to stand up, but she refused to stay on her knees in the presence of that insufferable Saiyan. Gritting her teeth, she tried to think of something, **anything**, that could possibly turn the situation around for her but when a body was thrown crashing through the trees to land at her feet. Her heart clenched as she looked down at the sight of a bloody, bruised and barely conscious Xander but the sound of footsteps drew her attention away from a prime example of brutality. Looking at the battered forest, she watched with rising fear as Cell emerged from it with a smile of victory that almost broke her composure with how it creeped her out.

"Thank you for ensuring the lady didn't leave, Vegeta." Cell said with little genuine gratitude in his voice. "It would have been bothersome to track her down again."

"Save me your meaningless drivel! Just consume her so that we can resume our fight." Vegeta snapped, obviously impatient with how things were proceeding.

"But of course. It shouldn't take more than a moment now that you've taken the fight out of her." Cell said with a smile as he strode towards her. "You've led me on a merry chase, 18, but now it's time for you to join 17."

She wanted to fight, wanted to scream that it'd never happen, but without any hope to give her strength she found herself helpless to do anything more than glare defiantly. In a flash Cell vanished from where he had been walking and reappeared right in front of her in a sudden enough manner to cause her to yelp and begin to move back. She didn't get more than a couple of inches though before a green unnatural hand clamped down around her throat and lifted her off the ground. Reflexively her human side caused her to reach up with both hands to try and pry the inhumanly strong fingers from around her neck. However it was no use and as her biological components were quickly being starved of the oxygen they needed, causing her strength to wane along with her consciousness.

"That's right, Android 18. Just slip away and go to sleep." Cell said with false comfort in his voice as he brought his tail up and over his shoulder. "I'll take it from here!"

Watching as the end of the tail expanded outwards to make it look like some sort of plunger or pipe, there was only one last thought to cross her mind before the blackness took her.

_I hope I give you the worst case of indigestion possible!_

_**Flying Through the Air Quickly Approaching the Forest West of the Ox King's Home**_

_**Same Time, Trunks' POV**_

_Damn you, father! What are you thinking!_ He thought angrily as he poured every ounce of power he had into getting to where he needed to be.

He knew what his father had said, that he wanted to test his ascended power against a challenging opponent, but it just didn't make any kind of sense to him. To risk the fate of the entire planet, the entire **universe**, just to find out where the limits of one's power was complete and absolute insanity. So insane that he'd knowingly risked what respect he'd managed to gain from his father during their training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber by taking on Cell himself once it became clear his father had no intention of doing it himself. However the Prince of all Saiyans hadn't taken kindly to this and had managed to make him lose consciousness for a time but now he was awake and determined to keep his father from bringing about the end of the world.

He was just close enough to be able to see his destination when Cell's power level skyrocketed with terrifying speed. With the distance rapidly disappearing, he soon saw the monstrous creation of Dr. Gero glowing with unnatural energy and realized with awful certainty that Android 18 had been devoured by the abomination. All at once images surged through his mind of the terrible future from which he came and he knew that unless he did something now, history would repeat itself. Flying towards the changed biological killing machine, Trunks unleashed a barrage of Super Saiayn energy blasts as he went in the hopes of disrupting the sick joke of nature's metamorphosis. Landing not far from the point of impact, he tried to determine whether or not his onslaught had done its job and, much to his horror, he realized that it had not. Blasts that would have reduced lesser opponents to smoking corpses hadn't even caused the power hungry humanoid to flinch, much less something more encouraging.

With fear spurring him on he renewed his assault, refusing to allow this terrible scene to continue out of sheer stubborn will.

Something he had no doubt he'd inherited from his mother.

This time, however, he decided to disrupt the transformation the old fashioned way: physically and brutally. Charging forward at his top speed, he brought back his fist in preparation for a blow that he hoped would knock the horrible monster off his feet. If by some chance it wound up going right through Cell then that would be even better but somehow he doubted that he'd get that lucky on the first try. He soon found out though that his luck was actually even worse than he thought because, before he could even close to punching range, an energy barrier sprung up around his foe, surprising him. This had the humiliating side effect of sending him to the ground instead but he quickly recovered and got back to his feet. Looking back at Cell, he could tell that the energy field that had flung him to the ground was only getting stronger as the seconds passed. Preparing himself better with his ki field, he flew forth and tried to force his way through the energy barrier when he came into contact with it. With his power, with his will, with his desire to not see the world around him reduced to a wasteland by the creature transforming before him he pushed as hard as he could. For a moment it looked as though he might succeed in piercing the barrier but, with a distorted yell, Cell intensified his protective field of energy once again, causing him to be flinged back several feet.

"Damn it!" He exclaimed as he watched helplessly as the monster known as Cell continued to evolve within the dome of emerald energy.

His mind raced to think up some sort of strategy, any technique that he could use to pierce the energy barrier and kill Cell. Sadly, while he had trained hard in the Hyperbolic time chamber, he had done so with the expectation that he would be using his newly acquired powers to kill a creature that had not yet achieved his ultimate form. He had no idea how to pierce such a powerful energy field aside from using brute strength and that had failed spectacularly.

Unfortunately the world would not wait for him, nor would Cell.

With a surge of energy and the explosion that followed the transformation, Cell's metamorphosis into his final form was complete. Bit by bit the dust and the light faded until all could see the terrible appearance of the one who could very well be the destroyer of the planet Earth if not the entire galaxy. Just as before when the monstrosity had absorbed Android 17, the changes to Gero's foulest creation were significant and made the humanoid look like an insectile version of King Kold. The wings had grown large again but were now a deep and dark purple in terms of coloring. Cell looked more like a man wearing a bug man suit from some cheap television series than the walking monster he had been before. However he didn't let this less inhuman look fool him for a moment. Both Android 17 and 18 looked like harmless teenagers on the outside but once they unleashed their power they showed their demonic inner nature. Stretching out with his ki senses, he tried to get a reading on Cell's true strength but it wasn't easy with the air still being saturated with the excess energy from the transformation.

What he could make out though confirmed his worst fears.

Cell's power had reached terrible new heights, turning what should have been an easy victory for the ascended Super Saiyans into something that optimistically could be called a fair fight. Despite the horrible rise in power, he would still fight with all he had to stop Gero's nightmarish creation and if his father tried to get in the way again… well, he'd do what he had to do. Even if that meant beating his father to within an inch of his life.

There was more at stake than one man's life, even if that person was his dad.

He was about to launch his first offensive at the transformed terror when the sounds of suffering reached his ears, pulling his attention away from his foe. Looking in the direction of the noise, the sight that he beheld horrified him and intensified the terrible images of his future as he saw his Uncle Xander bloody and looking broken on the ground. So affected was he by the sight that he almost didn't catch the little details that implied that the half-brother of his father was trying to get to his feet only to find his body too badly injured to do anything more than a slow, inconsistent crawl. Memories fluttered by his mind of the horrible night when he'd seen the results of Xander taking on Android 18 and almost immediately he looked to his relative's legs. It was with no small bit of relief that he saw they were still there and were nowhere near as mangled as they'd been for the Xander Harris from his time. Still, it was not a pretty sight and when he saw his uncle cough up a bit of blood he knew where he could do the most good right then.

Flying swiftly to Xander's side, he didn't have to wait long for the guy to notice him and, when their eyes met, he was shocked to see the raw determination and anger in the young man before him. In the future he'd come from, he'd seen eyes that were similar to the ones he was viewing now but there was a quality about these ones that he couldn't quite place. Whatever it was, it kept the other two emotions going strong despite the shape of the pureblooded Saiyan's body.

"Uncle Xander, hang on. I've got a Senzu bean here." He said as he reached into a pocket that was on the inside of his armor to pull out the mentioned item, "Eat it. It'll get you back on your feet."

With the utmost care he placed the magical item into his uncle's mouth and watched as the young man began to chew on it with what remained of his strength, swallowing it. Seconds later new vitality filled the body of his father's brother, making the injuries that had existed a less than pleasant memory. Pushing himself to his feet, Xander didn't even bother to confirm that his body was indeed fully recovered but rather he simply reached up and tore off the remains of his shirt, leaving him naked from the waist up.

"Thanks for the pick me up, Trunks. I feel a lot better now," Xander said before transforming into a Super Saiyan in a flash of golden ki energy. "Now, though, I want you to just stay here and not get in my way. I've got some serious paypack to deliver and I don't want you getting in my way."

The cold fury in Uncle Xander's voice caused him to reflexively step back for a moment but then reason returned to his mind.

"No! You might have gotten stronger thanks to the Senzu bean healing your body but you're still not strong enough to take on Cell," he said, moving to block his relative from approaching Gero's creation. "You won't even make him flinch as strong as he is now."

To those words he received the coldest blue eyed glare he had ever seen in his entire life.

"It doesn't matter if I can beat him or not. It's a case of my heart, my soul, refusing to allow me to simply walk away without letting that **bastard** know just how much he's pissed **me OFF!**" Xander yelled before digging deep within him and pushing his power level to rise as high as it could.

With grunts and other exclamations of effort, his Uncle Xander's power rose displacing the dirt beneath his feet in all directions. It didn't take long for the level of ki the pureblooded Saiyan was generating to surpass what had previously been its limit and continue upwards without any sign of slowing down. However there was only so much of a power increase a Saiyan body could acquire after recovering from serious injury and eventually Xander's power level stopped ascending. It wasn't as high as what he and his father could now achieve, it barely reached the halfway point as well as being a little unstable, but still it was as strong as he'd ever seen his uncle.

Then without a word of warning Xander shot towards Cell like a golden comet and, with impressive speed, delivered an air-displacing kick right to the back of the monstrosity's head. As he'd expected from the beginning, it didn't even cause the abomination to move his head or let on that he'd felt any pain. This did not deter his uncle, though, as the young man continued to attack the creature that had previously pummelled him with everything he had. Nothing was held back, whether they be physical blows or potent ki blasts but, despite his relative's determined efforts, nothing changed save for considerable changes in the landscape. For ten straight minutes this continued until, all of a sudden, Xander retreated a couple of feet as if to reconsider his strategy for dealing with Cell.

"Finished are we?" Asked Cell in a condescending tone of voice as he finally turned his head to look at Xander directly. "Then I guess it's my turn."

With those words he felt the monstrosities power level surge and quickly reach a point where it was double that of his previous form before disappearing in a show of speed. Only once did Gero's creation become visible for even an instant and that was likely just because the creature wanted Xander to see it. His uncle did his best to take advantage of it though by lunging forward with a punch from his right hand but the blow hit nothing but air.

It's too bad that Cell's kick had no trouble hitting its mark.

With strength that he hadn't even anticipated, the mistake of science hit his uncle sending the young man flying back into what remained of the nearby forest as though the Saiyan had been fired from a cannon. Wood splintered and stone shattered but eventually the impacts succeeded in taking away the power of the blow, resulting in Xander finally coming to a stop. For a few moments all that could be heard were the sounds of falling trees and rocks but then with a surge of golden ki, his uncle pushed everything violently away. When the ground around his uncle was completely cleared Xander's ki field settled but it quickly became clear that the blow delivered by Gero's final creation had done some damage. His uncle had a hand pressed against his stomach and, judging by the bruising that was beginning to manifest in various shades of purple, it wasn't surprising.

"Impressive! You managed to blunt the force of my kick at the last second." Cell said with mocking praise and a smug smile. "I wonder if you can manage such a feat a second time."

"He won't have to because now that you've achieved your final form, it's time we picked up where we left off," his father grunted as he changed his ki flow from passive to active. "Not that I expect much of a better fight then the last time, given how puny that new body of yours is."

"As you wish. I'll just have to defeat court jester later." Cell said, dismissing Xander as a threat for the time being.

"Assuming that there is a 'later' for you after I'm done with you." Vegeta said before taking up a fighting stance.

_**Kami's Lookout, Same Time, Piccolo's P.O.V**_

_Vegeta! You fool! You've doomed us all!_ Piccolo thought as he looked down from the edge of the Lookout at the world below.

Ever since Vegeta and Trunks had left to seek out Cell, he had been watching the events unfold with Tien and never before had he witnessed such a rollercoaster sequence of events. At first when Vegeta had been powering up soon after he'd arrived at Cell's location, he had been amazed at how powerful the arrogant Saiyan had become. Indeed the training that the self-proclaimed Prince of all Saiyans had undergone in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber looked to have paid off. By the time that the arrogant asshole had finished powering up, it had become clear to him who would emerge the victor. This belief was quickly proven to be well founded since over the course of the next several minutes Vegeta made sport of kicking Cell around the various islands. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't enjoyed seeing the monster being pummelled and humiliated but all of that took a backseat to the safety of the world.

It was too bad that Vegeta didn't feel the same way.

As the battle continued it became clear that the arrogant one was more than powerful enough to kill Cell once and for all but, rather than do the right thing, he had chosen to indulge his ego. The fool could have defeated Gero's monster ten times over but was showboating for no other reason than to stroke his own ego. Over and over again opportunities to end the battle were ignored in favor of The Vegetable showing off or bragging about how powerful he now was. The only thing that allowed the planet Earth to continue to exist was the fact that Cell proved incapable of capitalizing on the unbridled arrogance of the Saiyan prince. Even with all the reckless chances and arrogant openings Vegeta had provided Cell, whether they be intentional or unintentional, the monstrosity had been incapable of turning things around.

However, as was normally the case with the pureblooded Saiyan, it hadn't taken long to for Vegeta to get bored with fighting such a weak opponent. Such sentiments should have meant that the arrogant prince would finally finish Cell off and end the threat represented by Gero's ultimate creation.

Too bad Cell had one more card to play up his metaphorical sleeve.

It was a card that many had used when they'd fought Vegeta: they utilized the Saiyan prince's ego against him.

With a few well-chosen words and an offer of proper challenge, the amalgamation of DNA tricked the royal moron into letting him go so he could find Android 18. That had been bad enough but the cocky bastard had been quick to prove that there were no limits to his selfishness and delusions of self-importance. Not only did he use Bulma's systems to give Cell his prey's exact location but he even took Trunks out of play when the youth had attempted to kill the abomination himself. Unobstructed it hadn't taken Gero's killing machine long to locate Xander but, thankfully, the young Saiyan was quick witted enough to come up with a reasonable plan, despite how simple it was. Xander had pretended that he'd teleported to some random location and then removed himself from the equation to eliminate the possibility of future tracking. There had even been an inkling that the young Saiyan had a part two to his plan but, sadly, he hadn't been able to act on it since over the course of the battle that followed Xander had been beaten into the ground. Already injured from his earlier battle with the imperfect Cell, the young man was unable to muster the strength needed and his body had paid the price.

Still, he had held onto the hope that victory could still be obtained since from his vantage point he had seen the arrival of Krillin. The experienced little warrior had the controller developed by Bulma and all that would have been required was the pushing of the button to deactivate Android 18. Once that was done, even the weakest amongst Goku's allies would have been enough to destroy the female machine stopping Cell's evolution in its tracks. It had not unfolded that way, though, as once again Vegeta proved that he would not tolerate anyone interfering with his great match by obliterating the controller. With the device blown to bits, he'd known how everything would go before anyone took so much as a step down the path that had been laid out before them.

Krillin had given it his best try and the lady android had made a valiant effort to escape but, thanks to Vegeta's interference, she had been helpless when Cell had finally finished with his temporary sparring partner. What had happened next had been nothing short of terrible as Cell finally achieved his objective by absorbing Android 18 and the following torrent of rising ki had left him wondering if there was anything more to be done. With his evolution completed and his final form obtained Cell was now the most powerful being on the planet and unless Goku managed to pull off something truly awe inspiring it was all over.

For all of them.

"What's happening? What's going on?" Asked Bulma from behind him. "C'mon! Not all of us know what's going on! Answer me, Piccolo! Answer me!"

"Cell has achieved his perfect form," he replied, not wanting to bother with saying anything anymore.

"WHAT! But what about my controller? Didn't Krillin use it?" She asked in shock and in fear at how things had turned out.

"He never got the chance to use it," he replied while never once losing track of what was going on down below the Lookout. "Vegeta destroyed it just so he could get his big fight with Cell's complete form!"

"WHAT!" Exclaimed Bulma with complete incomprehension.

He couldn't say he blamed her.

It was incomprehensible that any sane individual would put an entire planet full of people in danger just so they could have a good fight. He doubted very much that even another Saiyan, one who had been raised in the same sort of environment as Vegeta, would have allowed this to transpire the same way the arrogant prince had. No, he was one of a kind, thank whatever god was listening, but all it had taken was one to set the planet Earth on a direct course for planetary obliteration. Now the only person who stood a chance of defeating Cell was currently training inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber at that very moment. The only question was whether or not they would emerge in time to stop the abomination down on the planet's surface.

_At least Trunks got to Xander in time,_ he thought as he briefly measured the young man's strength. _It had been looking pretty grim for the kid before but now that he's back on his feet we have one more Super Saiyan in our corner._

Indeed that would be an advantage because, as far as he knew, Xander had not yet undergone training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. There was still a chance that the young man could increase his power enough to bring down Cell. All that they'd need would be time and, considering the amount of arrogance embedded in the bits of DNA from Freiza, King Kold and Vegeta, it was unlikely that that would be a problem. Much like the Prince of all Saiyans, the creature would no doubt want to test his new powers out and would not hesitate to do so using the people of Earth as targets. As ruthless as it might have sounded, it would be in their best interest to let Gero's creation have his way in that respect as it would by all of them the time they needed to use the Chamber. He knew he would be one of the ones to go in, even though he didn't know if a year would be enough to put him on an even playing field with Cell. In the face of such a grim future, he could not stand by without doing anything to stop the evil currently on the planet's surface. Even if he couldn't beat the monster outright on his own, he could at least act as back up for Goku.

"It's not looking good down there." Tien said, proving he had some talent in the department of understatement.

"No, no it isn't and it's all Vegeta's fault! That egomaniac put his own ridiculous pride ahead of the planet's safety and unless Goku manages a miracle, we're all going to pay for that asshole's mistake." Piccolo growled as he watched Cell toy with Vegeta, who still hadn't clued in that he was going to lose.

He ignored Bulma as she went into a similar state of rage over Vegeta's actions because, quite frankly, she wasn't saying anything he hadn't already thought many times over. No, his time would be best served closely observing Cell in his final form and looking for any flaws that he would likely have to exploit in the near future. He didn't buy the test tube terror's claims that he was perfect. A creation is only as perfect as the one who created it and, since all mortal beings were flawed in some way, Cell had to have an Achilles heel somewhere. Whether it was his technique, his tactics or the monster's overall way of thinking, there had to be something he could use to his advantage when the time came.

And if Vegeta happened to be dead when that day came… well, he wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. After all, it'd serve that arrogant asshole right to get killed for aiding Cell and allowing all this to come to pass.

_**On the Earth Below, The Skies Above the Forest, Vegeta's P.O.V**_

"Damn you, Cell!" He yelled as the bastard once again evaded his attack. "Come back here!"

With anger growing in his mind, he flew after the being that had spent the last handful of minutes treating him like a complete fool. This was **NOT** the way it was supposed to be! The entire point of allowing Cell to absorb that final android was so that he could finally have an opponent that would allow him to see just where the limits of his new powers were. Regardless of how difficult the battle was, he was supposed to remain firmly in control and be enjoying how helpless his enemy was before his supreme power. He was not supposed to be trying and **failing** to dominate the foul fiend! Pushing his ki level even higher, he tried twice as hard to hit the foe who was taunting him with that blasted smirk on his face. He used every tactic he knew for fighting foes that had the advantage in speed but all that did was cause Cell to block or parry his attacks like he was some pathetic **child**.

This was **INTOLERABLE!**

"Come now, Vegeta. Surely the **prince** of all Saiyans can do better than this!" Cell said mockingly as he continued to treat what was happening as though it were some kind of game.

"Shut up!" He snapped back before charging a ki attack for release at point blank range.

With an almighty yell of defiance he unleashed a ki blast that the winged fool would not be able to dodge and would **definitely** do some damage. With great confidence he watched the blast of deadly energy shoot across the short distance between his hands and Cell's body. He could see the organic android trying to evade the oncoming blast but he was just moving too slow. With his confidence returning, he watched as his attack inched closer and closer to its target with no sign that it would miss like the others had. However, right when the blast had to be no more than two inches from Cell's chest, the fucker vanished in a blur of motion only to reappear far to the right of where he'd previously been. It was infuriating to see Cell's cocky smirk because it made it clear to him that the whole 'attempt' to flee had been act meant to dangle success in front of him.

_He's mocking me! ME! The Prince of all Saiyans!_ He thought with rage as he channelled his emotions into his power, causing them to go even higher.

He wanted to power up more, to push his body to its limits, in order to wipe that smirk off of Cell's face, but in a moment of clarity he realized that that would be foolish. During his training in that damn Time Chamber he'd learned of a flaw in the method that he'd devised in order to ascend to a higher level past that of Super Saiyan. The flaw was that, while powering up did increase his overall strength, the extra mass he gain in response reduced his speed by a significant degree. By his calculations there'd be a point where his mass would become so great that it would be pointless to fight Cell since he'd never be able to connect. He knew this because the symptoms of the mass increase were beginning to show themselves in how he felt and how he moved. If he continued to power up, he would only make it easier for walking lab experiment to humiliate him and that was one thing he would not allow.

Especially not when there were witness present who could spread the word of his defeat.

Racking his mind for the perfect strategy, only one came to mind but it suited him fine and it would destroy the memory of the mistakes he'd made up until this point. Backing a good two hundred yards away from Cell, he retained the look of anger on his face as it was crucial in order for him to sell the deception.

"That's it! I've had it with your trickery!" He yelled at Cell as he began to gather his great power. "If you're so unstoppable, Cell, then stay right where you are! We'll see if you're strong enough to take what I have in store for you!"

He did not have to wait long because, with cocky grin still firmly in place, Cell braced himself in the air with his own insane power. Internally Vegeta grinned as he held his arms out to either side of his body as his ki field crackled with power all around him. More and more he began to condense and strengthen it for the task ahead with the energy almost getting away from him every so often. However he would not let it because this was to be the tool that would bring him victory so that he could prove to all that, even at his strongest, Cell was no match for the heir to throne of the Saiyan race. Feeling that the time for the next stage of his technique had arrived, he brought both arms forward until the heels were pressing up against one another. Willing the energy he was putting out to gather in front of his palms was difficult and a few bolts of energy did fly off, but overall everything was going according to plan. It was only when his considerable willpower had reached its limits that he knew the time to act.

"CELL! ONCE AGAIN YOU'VE TAKEN FOR GRANTED THE POWERS OF A TRUE SAIYAN WARRIOR!" He yelled so that all could hear him. "NOW I WILL SHOW YOU WHY THOSE WHO HAVE DONE SO IN THE PAST HAVE NOT SURVIVED TO TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT!"

With a grin to match the one plastered on Cell's face, he did some last second correcting of his aim so that the creatures face would be right in the center of his attack.

"FINAL FLASH! HHAAA!"

Like a gigantic comet that was skimming the surface of the planet, his attack flew through the air directly for Cell, who looked as though he hadn't figured out just how much energy was in the technique… not until it was too late to do anything but realize that he was seeing his death hurtling towards him, that was.

He could feel when the blast made contact with Gero's test tube toddler and smiled as he felt Cell's signature fade away with his ki senses. There could be only one possible reason for this: he had just successfully destroyed Cell! As the smoke cleared from his attack and the debris that had been pried from gravity's grasp by his awesome power fell back to the ground, he wondered if there'd be anything left of Gero's ultimate creation. It'd be nice if there was something he could mount on the wall, something to rub in Kakarot's face when the opportunity arose, but if there wasn't he wouldn't lose any sleep over it. It was as he was thinking of this that the state of Cell was revealed and a prettier picture he could never recall seeing save in his dreams. Hovering in the air with stumps replacing three of the five appendages was Cell who looked as though he had taken his attack head on just as he'd intended. Add to the fact that the monster's power level was substantially less than it was and it was clear that with just a little more effort he would be able to end this fight with himself as the victor.

With this fact humming in his mind he let his joy be known to all as he laughed loud and hard for, as the victor in this confrontation, it was his right to do so.

"STOP LAUGHING!" Cell bellowed just like he had in his previous form once it had been made clear he could not win.

This only caused his laughter to get louder due to the commonalities between his initial fight with Cell and this very moment. He loved what he was feeling now, the feeling of victory, and it was extra sweet due to the effort he'd been forced to expend.

"You're a fool, Vegeta," Cell said in a voice that was no longer that of a defeated foe. "Or have you forgotten that some of Piccolo's genetic material makes up my DNA. You remember the special little ability of the Nameks, don't you?"

His mood paused at Cell's words and then began to plummet as he recalled the singular ability of the Namek people and, in particular, Piccolo.

The ability to regenerate lost limbs in **seconds!**

As if to back up his words, all of the damage done to Cell's body was undone in surge of renewed limbs and green organic slime. It was as if his Final Flash technique had never happened both physically as well as energy-wise as he felt Cell's power level return to its earlier impressive strength. The abomination had taken his best attack, the technique that was supposed to end it all, on purpose and then used it as a tool to humiliate him further. With a surge of rage he sent all of the remaining condensed ki that he had in his body at Cell determined to pick apart the abomination once more and this time eliminate anything that could permit a repeat of the regeneration he'd just witnessed. As the ki blast detonated against the body of his hated foe he waited to see if it'd had the desired effect but to his horror Gero's creation emerged from the cloud caused by the detonation unscathed. It shouldn't have been possible! While his latest attack did not equal the Final Flash in size, it had still been a projectile made up of condensed ki and should have been enough to do **some** damage.

"It's over, Vegeta. Face it: you've **lost**!" Cell declared before disappearing in a blur of motion.

Before he had time to look in more than one direction, an unbelievably powerful force slammed into his stomach with more power than anything he'd ever felt before. The shock to his body threw his mind for a loop even as his body hurtled through the air to impact on the ground below with enough speed to cause a trench ten feet long to be formed. His mind was awash with pain as his body got over the shock of the blow and even as he tried to compartmentalize it so he could still fight he found his form was barely at half its former functionality. It was infuriating to realize that what chance he might have had to defeat Cell had slipped through his fingers, leaving only an existence as a punching bag for him to look forward to. Was this it? Was this how the last great warrior of the Saiyan race was going to meet his end? A plaything for a creature that should never have existed in the first place?

"Still, I suppose it's only right to thank you for letting me go earlier," Cell mused with great arrogance in his voice. "If it hadn't been for your ridiculous ego, I never would have gotten this far. Go to your death knowing that your much valued Saiyan pride truly was the death of you and everything you care about on this worthless mudball."

"CELL! DAMN YOU!" He yelled in a fit of fury as he surged forward to vent his hate upon the one who'd made a mockery of him.

He only saw a flicker of movement before he was struck in the jaw by an unseen force and this time his body did not have the strength or the willpower to withstand its effects. As his consciousness faded, he swore to himself that if he survived this he would make Cell pay for this humiliation.

He would make him pay with **his LIFE!**


	18. A Date Set and Preparations Made

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of the creators and associated companies. I am making no money off of this whatsoever. I write for fun and the enjoyment of those who like to read my work.

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

_Looks like Vegeta's still alive,_ he thought with bitterness in his mind. _What a pity. Still, it leaves me with something to look forward to._

Indeed he had already made a mental note that once he was strong enough, there would be a reckoning between him and his half-brother. Whether or not the fool survived after they fought was something he'd yet to decide but he was sure the answer would come to him sooner or later. For the moment, though, there were concerns on the table, the largest one being the fact that Cell was now stronger than even an ascended Super Saiyan. He wanted nothing more than to tear that abomination limb from limb, the hate as well as the anger he felt towards Cell was so thick he could taste it, but as strong as the desire was it wasn't enough to negate the facts. Not only was he not strong enough to do the job but, thanks to the creature's kick, he was back on the injured list and most definitely not at full strength. Attacking Cell now would only result in him getting the shit beat out of him, just like Vegeta had, and he'd be damned if he'd follow that asshole's example. So, whether he liked it or not, he would have to bide his time until a true chance at vengeance presented itself. When that opportunity presented itself, he would be ready and Cell would learn what it meant to kill one of his girls.

"I'd say sweet dreams, Vegeta, but the sleep you are going to receive is going to be of the sour and permanent kind," Cell said as he prepared to unleash the deathblow unto the self-proclaimed Prince of all Saiyans. "Goodbye **Super** Vegeta."

As he was about to sit back and watch the fireworks when all of a sudden a power spike snagged his attention with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer between the eyes. Jerking his head to the side, he couldn't help but gape at Trunks, who now was floating a good thirty feet in the air, crackling with power. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen before and, considering how awesome the Super Saiyan transformation was, that was saying a lot. Muscles bulged, hair got spikier and the ki aura surrounding him pulsed with ever-increasing amounts of power. It was amazing because, unless he missed his guess, the kid from the future was charging right past the ki level he'd sensed Vegeta level out at as his maximum output. For a second he wondered why the teenager hadn't used this power earlier because, if he had, he could have finished of Cell in a single move. The answer, though, came to him quickly enough as he realized that the young man had a desperate desire to be accepted and respected by his father. That was something that would never happen if Trunks upstaged his father and so the purple haired teen had likely secretly made sure to never let his ki level rise above Vegeta's.

_A wasted effort in my opinion, _he thought as he continued to observe the son of Bulma raise his ki level higher. _Vegeta doesn't respect anyone but himself. He sees everyone else as nothing more than middle class trash that should consider themselves lucky to be allowed in his presence._

With a final surge of energy Trunks finally reached his maximum power output and it was time to see just what future boy could really do. Would it be enough to kill Cell? He would soon find out.

"Xander! Take father and Krillin to Kami's Lookout!" Trunks yelled from his position in the air. "They're going to need Senzu beans!"

For a moment he considered telling the young man that Vegeta could get to the Lookout on his own but two things stopped him. The first was the fact that the kid was much stronger than him and that might mean some serious pain in his future if he left the Prick of all Saiyans to die. The second was the fact that, while Vegeta was an asshole, his son from the future was a pretty decent person so it'd go against his own sense of honor to cause such a person unnecessary grief. So, with a reluctant nod, he waited for just the young man to make his move so that he could make his own. He didn't have long to wait as, with a surge of speed, Trunks crossed the distance between himself and a complete Cell in the blink of an eye. Blows were exchanged between the two at an amazing rate and bit by bit they moved away from where his no good half-brother lay unconscious. He waited until there was a good two or three football fields between the combatants and then he flew over to where Trunks' father lay. With a disgusted shake of his head he grabbed a hold of Vegeta by his armor and tossed him over his right shoulder before taking to the air once more, heading for where he sensed Krillin's ki signature.

It only took a few minutes but, when he set eyes on the form of Krillin, he considered it nothing short of miracle that the little guy was still breathing. Bruises and blood were easy to see with signs that he was having difficulty breathing mixed in for variety. Descending to the ground, he knelt by the veteran warrior's side and knew that he wouldn't be able to fly Krillin to safety in time and that left only one option: instant transmission. Placing one hand on Krillin before reaching out with his ki senses in search of either Piccolo or Tien, whom he had a feeling would be watching things from the Lookout. It wasn't as easy as it should have been but, after a minute of looking, his mind achieved a lock on Piccolo's location. Thus, with a quick following of the steps Goku had taught him, he executed the instant transmission technique and found himself at his intended destination.

"Xander! Are you alright?" Bulma's called out, her voice filled with genuine concern.

"Nothing serious for me but both Krillin and Prince Asshole here need Senzu beans," he said as he none too gently tossed Vegeta's unconscious form to the ground.

Thankfully no one gave him any grief over it and that was most likely because they knew the truth about what happened and how it was all Vegeta's fault that things has gone to crap.

"I'll fly down to Korin's and see if he has two to spare." Tien said before diving off the edge of the Lookout.

"Xander, what happened down there? I tried asking Piccolo but he won't tell me anything." Bulma said with baby Trunks in her arms.

Grimacing a bit as he sat down on the floor, he related what he knew about the situation, including his own efforts to keep Android 18 safe. He could tell that he had the heir of Capsule Corp's complete attention from the very first sentence and watched as one emotion after another crossed her face. By the time he finished with getting to the Lookout, he could tell that the blue haired young woman was seriously considering going over to Vegeta and kicking him away in her own unique fashion. He doubted that it'd do any damage so if she wanted to introduce the tip of her shoe to the side of that dumbass' head, he wasn't about to get in her way.

"Why that self-centered, egotistical, battle crazed idiot!" Bulma raged as she glared at Vegeta. "Krillin could've ended it all with the push of a button!"

He remained silent on this matter since, in his mind, if he had seen Krillin about to deactivate and destroy Android 18, he'd likely have destroyed the controller as well. With her absorption by Cell all of his doubts and apprehension about his feelings for the female entity had vanished, only to be replaced by genuine feelings of affection. Whether those feelings would evolve into something more profound, he didn't know. All he did know at the moment was that the second Goku and Gohan exited the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he'd be going in to train his ass off for the entire year. If he had to, he'd share the Chamber with someone else, anyone else, except **Vegeta**. If the two of them got locked in there, he had no doubt that one of them would wind up killing the other one or perhaps even both of them would die at the other one's hands.

_As much as I'd like to put Vegeta out of everyone's misery, it'll have to wait until after I dismember Cell piece by piece._ He thought as his anger towards Gero's creation rose. _That bastard's going to pay for he did! Even if I don't get to deliver the kill shot myself, that __**abomination**__ will learn what it means to piss __**me OFF!**_

It was as he was getting back to his feet that older Trunks' ki signature surged forth to the point where he could not ignore it. This was a shock because, as far as he knew, the battlefield with Cell was almost on the other side of the world. It was true that if he took the time to focus he'd have no trouble sensing it but to feel it from this far away could only mean that the teenager from the future was putting out some serious power. Golden lightning was arcing through the air proving that the rising energy was beginning to affect the weather of the planet in volatile ways. Moving over to the edge of the Lookout, he looked down and attempted to get a firmer grasp of the situation down on the planet's surface. He didn't get it right away since he'd never been up there before but, after deciding to treat it like sensing ki, he was able to get a general idea of what both Cell and Trunks were doing. The young half-Saiyan was powering up to a ridiculous degree, a level he hadn't anticipated when he'd been down on the battlefield, and in his mind it could very well be enough to kill Cell. A part of him growled at this, angered at the thought of not being able to settle things himself, but the more rational part of himself forced the anger to back down. What was important was not his own desires but the wellbeing of the entire planet below. If Trunks could kill Cell, good for him.

It was a bit later that Trunks apparently became satisfied with his power level because he could sense the young man charging Cell's position. For a time it looked as though this really would be the end of Dr. Gero's ultimate creation because, while the monster proved capable of recovering from the blows he received, the mere fact that those attacks were knocking the abomination around was promising. For every blow that Cell managed to land, Trunks connected with ten more making the odds look decidedly stacked in the young half-Saiyan's favor. However there was an… itch… in the back of his mind that told him there was something he wasn't seeing. Even if Trunks had surpassed his father in power, Cell should've been putting up much more of a fight then he was. The creature's power level should've been going up but throughout the struggle with the boy from the future it remained right where it was.

It didn't make sense.

Unless…

With extra focus he tried to take in all he could on what was happening on the battlefield as the brief pause he'd detected came to an end. At first everything seemed normal or as normal as things could be with ki battles and the fate of the entire world at stake. However it was roughly five minutes into the renewed altercation that he began to pick up on something that worried him greatly. For all the power Trunks possessed, the number of successful hits he delivered was dropping faster than Harmony's panties in the back seat of some jock's car back home. Eventually it got to the point where no matter how hard the apocalypse survivor tried and how much he powered up, not one of the kicks or punches managed to impact on Cell's flesh. For a moment it didn't make sense but then he remembered how bulked up both Vegeta and Trunks were in their ascended forms and answer became so obvious.

Speed.

With the additional muscle mass came added weight as well as reduced flexibility. As a result Trunks was unable to hit Cell as the creature held the advantage in speed and possessed enough strength to make the blows he delivered hurt. It was useless to increase your physical strength if you couldn't make your speed increase to match it.

The fight was over.

Trunks just hadn't clued in just yet.

Ten minutes later the fighting or, rather, toying came to an end and when he felt Trunks' power level dropping rapidly. Scrutinizing things, he didn't think it was because the guy had been dealt a serious blow or had a serious injury. More than likely it meant that the warrior had simply given up as the truth of the situation hit him squarely between the eyes. With fighting off the table, the question became 'what would Cell do?' Would he kill his latest opponent or would he spare the prey that stood before him? He personally hoped it was the latter because, based on what he'd experienced, the teenager wasn't that bad a guy and he'd be far more useful against Cell than his father would be to the planet Earth.

The sounds of a baby crying caught his attention and he turned to see baby Trunks seriously upset. It was almost as though the little guy could somehow sense that something truly terrible had happened and, for all he knew, the baby could. He had no idea when it came to what was or was not possible for a half-human and half-Saiyan child so some sort of extra sensory perception wasn't out of the question. Seeing this, he hoped that the Trunks from the future would make it out of his current predicament in one piece because, if not, Bulma would become an emotional mess and her baby would, too.

"Hey! What're you guys waiting for?" Bulma exclaimed in reaction to Piccolo's earlier reply, "Trunks needs your help! He could be hurt or even worse! What's happening down there anyway?"

"Don't worry, Bulma. Trunks is fine. He's just powered down right now," he replied so as to allow the more experienced Piccolo to continue monitoring events. "He found out the hard way that being strong enough to cause a global earthquake doesn't mean a thing if you can't hit the bad guy."

As he finished saying this, he could feel Cell moving away from what was most likely a pile of shattered wood and gravel at the moment. Since he could still sense Trunks, it was safe to say that the test tube terror had decided to let the halfbreed live and a bit of relief flowed through his mind at this. Dealing with a distressed Bulma would not have been pretty and it was in that spirit that he made his next choice.

"Looks like Cell's decided he has someplace else to be," he said, turning fully to face Bulma. "I'll go and bring Trunks here so he can tell us what happened."

Without another word he firmed up his ki lock on Trunks and then flickered away. He just hoped that the teenager from the future didn't have more bad news to dump into everyone's laps because they had more than enough already thankyouverymuch!

_**The Next Day, Mid-Morning, The Door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Gohan's POV**_

"Vegeta and Trunks. I knew I sensed them, Gohan, and I can still sense Cell down on Earth as well," his father stated as they looked at the assembled fighters waiting for them. "But he seems a lot stronger than he was when we entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

Reaching out with his own ki senses confirmed what his father had just said. Cell was alive still and stronger than ever before. He hadn't been expecting this when he'd left the Chamber a few moments ago. While he hadn't seen how well Vegeta and Trunks fared against the monster in his second form, he had presumed that both of them stood a decent chance of defeating the creature. It had been because of the chance that the two of them might fail that he'd trained his hardest with his Dad so that, if things really did go bad, he could help his friends. Now that they were out, he wanted to know what was going on and why Cell hadn't been defeated.

"So would someone fill us in on what's been happening?" His father as they approached the gathered Z fighters.

"Yeah…sure," replied Tien who looked like he was still trying to come to grips what he was looking at.

"Oh! But before you start talking I gotta get something into my stomach," stated his father, sounding like he was looking forward to it more than to the answer to his question. "Do you have anything good to ear, Mr. Popo?"

A few of the gang chuckled at this and even he had to admit that it was a bit amusing. With everything that had happened and the troubles ahead, it was just like his father to be more interested in eating than anything else.

It didn't take long for Mr. Popo to put out a picnic blanket full of food before him and his dad, nor did it take long for him to start looking at the various items before him the same way as his father. After all, while there may have been plenty of food in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, neither he or his father could cook very well. That job was almost exclusively handled by his Mom at home, with the only time they'd been left to their own devices being when she'd gone to visit Bulma for the weekend. His father had asked why they couldn't come along as well before adding that it'd be nice to see Bulma again. His mother had answered by saying that she and Bulma were going to have something called 'a girls night out' and that that meant guys were strictly prohibited. He wasn't quite sure what that phrase meant and the look that had been on his father's face at the time made it clear he didn't either. In any case, that had been the only time that his mom had left them to cook for themselves due to the mess that was waiting for her upon her return two days later.

With a quick 'thanks for the food', both he and his father began devouring the meal in front of them as fast as they could get it into their mouths, chew and then safely swallow. With every plate he emptied, though, he couldn't help but be amazed at how good it tasted but then he realized that when you'd been eating nothing but the simplest of meals for an entire year, anything different would be awesome. It took only a couple of minutes to finish it all but by the time it was done, he felt completely stuffed and he was sure his dad felt the same way.

"So, Trunks, why don't you tell us what's been happening." His father said as he leaned back a bit.

From there a tale unfolded that made him wonder if all the training he'd done in the Chamber would be enough to help his dad beat Cell. From Trunks' explanation of events, it sounded as though they'd lost their best chance to defeat Gero's creation thanks to Vegeta. It sounded like both Trunks and his father had been more than strong enough to beat the monster in his previous form but, thanks to the Saiyan Prince helping the creature, Cell was now stronger then he'd ever been before.

He could also tell that Xander wanted nothing more than to pound Vegeta into the ground but was holding himself back for some reason. He didn't know why his uncle was showing such restraint but he could understand the feelings he had towards Vegeta because he was feeling similar feelings, if only to a lesser degree. He might not get the same buzz his dad and Vegeta got from fighting but he could understand how good it could feel to take on an interesting challenge. However, like his parents had always tried to teach him, there were more important things in the world than a single person's wants or desires. One such thing was keeping a killing machine from destroying the planet, along with everyone on it. It just didn't make sense to him how Vegeta could be so obsessed with testing out his new powers against a worthy foe that he'd willingly endanger everyone.

By the time that Trunks had finished his explanation, he knew that the tournament that Cell was holding would decide the fate of everything. He wasn't worried, though, well not much, because he knew that his dad must have figured out a way to beat Cell because otherwise they would have stayed in the Chamber longer to train.

"Hmmm, so that's it. A tournament huh?" His father asked rhetorically with an interested grin on his face, "I gotta say, it sounds interesting."

"What? Interesting?" Piccolo asked, obviously puzzled by the statement.

"Hey Mr. Popo? Do you still have those clothes I left out here?" His father asked, no doubt referring to his usual fighting gear.

"Sure. I do. Somewhere." Replied Mr. Popo, sounding like he was distracted a bit. With those words the eternal caretaker of the Lookout went to retrieve those clothes as was his job. It didn't long for his father to change into his usual clothes but he himself had something a little different in mind for the clothes he wanted to wear. Walking over to his first mentor in the martial arts he looked up at the green skinned Namek taking note of the fact that he didn't have to look up quite as much now to look Piccolo in the face.

"Hey Piccolo? Can I have a new outfit just like yours?" he asked with only a bit of hesitation, "You were my first teacher, after all."

"Sure kid. It'll make you look really sharp." Piccolo said with a grin before pointing his right hand at him.

With a surge of ki and a flash of light he found himself wearing an outfit almost identical to the one Piccolo was wearing. The only things that were different were a lack of a turban and the fact that it had been custom tailored to his measurements. It almost made him want to learn how to do the whole clothes transformation thing himself since it'd probably help his mom out with the clothing bill but then he figured it was probably something that'd take years to learn how to do right. While he wasn't afraid of learning new things, he knew his mother would want him to focus on his studies for the next few years to make up for all the time he'd spent learning the martial arts and fighting.

"Thanks Piccolo. It's awesome!" He said in gratitude for what his first mentor had done for him.

"You look great, Gohan," his father said with genuine approval as he approached.

"Okay. Kakarot? Do you think you can beat Cell now?" Vegeta asked, walking forward from another direction.

"Can't say. I haven't seen him since he absorbed Android 18," replied his father with his usual honesty. "I'll have to go check him out."

With those words his father used the instant transmission technique and was gone in the blink of an eye. He was only gone for a couple of minutes but, when he returned, there wasn't really anything all that different from the usual look his father had on his face. Did this mean that he thought he could beat Cell without a problem?

"So what did you think, Goku?" Trunks asked, sounding eager for the champion of Earth's appraisal of their terrible foe.

"To be honest, Trunks, he's become a whole lot stronger than I thought he'd be." Replied his father, sounding a bit discouraged by what he'd found out.

That was not of the good as he'd heard his uncle Xander put it once.

"Of course I won't really know how tough he is until I see him fight but…" continued his father with his response to Trunks' question. "If I were to fight him right now, I'm pretty confident that he'd beat me into the ground."

This, of course, only confused everyone else, himself included, since it didn't make sense for his dad to be this relaxed if Cell was truly that much stronger than him.

"He can still use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber once more," Piccolo pointed out so as to keep everyone from getting too unsettled. "There's still plenty of time left and we've decided to go in first then Vegeta, who wants to go in alone."

"That's because I don't want any of you to interfere with my training," Vegeta explained in his usual gruff and superior manner.

"More like because there's no one here except Trunks who wants to be stuck in there with you for an entire year," Xander said just loud enough to be heard.

This earned a momentary glare from Vegeta but it didn't last long.

"Well I've… I've decided not to go in," Tien said, sounding intimidated by what lay within the Chamber. "I just don't think I'd be a worthy opponent for Cell even with a year of training."

"Trunks will be next followed by myself and Xander," Piccolo said, sounding like he already had everything organized in his head. "Goku and Gohan will be last."

"Gohan and I don't need a turn," his father said as he walked over to him.

"What!" asked Piccolo in surprise.

"There's only nine days left so I think we'll just train outside until then."

"You're not serious!" Vegeta exclaimed, as though it was the most insane thing he'd ever heard.

"No, he's Goku," his uncle Xander said with a slight smirk on his face, causing him to blink. Was that supposed to be a joke?

"What do you mean you're not going back in?" Asked Piccolo, voicing the same question that everyone else probably had in their minds at the moment. "You mean you don't need to go?"

"Nope. There's no point." Replied his father in a matter of fact sort of way.

"But why?" Piccolo asked unwilling to let things end there. "You do realize you could spend another day in there."

"I understand but I'd rather not go in," replied his father without any clue as to what he was thinking. "Training there takes way too much out of me."

"I get it. Little Kakarot finally admits that he's too weak to continue," Vegeta sneered with arrogance as the so-called prince probably thought of this as a chance to prove himself superior.

"Yeah, right! If you think torturing your body in there is the same as training then go for it. I wish you'd take my advice, Vegeta, but I know how important it is to you to keep up with my strength level. So you'll need all the time you can get."

"Oh really?" Vegeta asked, rising to the challenge issued between the lines. "Call me crazy but you make it sound as though you've become a great deal stronger than I am."

"Sure. I'm far above you." Said his father in a matter of fact sort of way.

"What?"

To this his father only chuckled a bit and it made him wonder if his dad was trying to make Vegeta mad on purpose. Whatever the case, with a few more parting words to the others he and his dad soon left the Lookout to probably go pick up his mom at Master Roshi's place before going home. It'd be weird seeing her again because, while only a day might have passed for her, an entire year had gone by for him. He just hoped that she didn't flip out too much. He loved her with all his heart but she did tend to go a bit overboard with how protective she was of him. That and she was ridiculously determined to make him into a world renowned scholar even if it wasn't what **he** wanted.

_One of these days I really have to decide what __**I**__ want to do with my life and let everyone know._ He thought as he watched his dad veer towards Korin's place.

_**The Hyperbolic Time Chamber, A Month After Entering, Piccolo's P.O.V**_

_Something's driving him on,_ Piccolo thought as he watched Xander train out in the vast white expanse. _But what could it be?_

For the last month the two of them had fallen into a steady schedule into maximize the potential benefits of their training. They'd start with a light sparring session in the morning in order to get warmed up for the rest of the day and then follow it up with exercises designed to increase their stamina. Once that was done they'd go through a series of katas or exercise routines with one always watching the other pointing out potential flaws in execution. That'd take them until about noon, when he'd have to break for lunch and watch as Xander devoured food with the same enthusiasm he'd seen in every other Saiyan he knew. After lunch they sparred again but this time all out with the only real restriction being that they had to watch where they were firing their ki blasts so as to make sure they didn't damage the living area.

Not an easy thing to do, consider how strong the two of them were.

The heavy sparring lasted a good two to three hours before they got too tired to continue, which made it ideal for meditation. He used the time to analyze what he'd done wrong during the sparring match as well as the mistakes that Xander had made. His problems were his own and he'd done his best to minimize the flaws that Cell would undoubtedly take advantage of but with Xander, there was something more going on. The young man was pushing himself hard in everything he did and there was none of the usual quips that had been common during the training sessions he'd taken part in during the three years leading up to the arrival of the androids. Back then, even though the youth had trained with the same dedication as the rest of them, the kid had still tried to make light of things.

Now… now he was all business and didn't talk unless it had something to do with their training.

He tried to think on what could have caused such a drastic change in behavior but the only possibility that made sense to him was the fact that Xander had been unable to prevent Cell from becoming complete mixed with Vegeta's actions. A great deal of effort had been put into keeping Android 18 hidden from Cell so it was understandable that the hard working Saiyan before him would be more than a little upset at it all going to waste thanks to his half-brother. The fact that Xander had almost been beaten to death by Cell couldn't have been all that enjoyable either, so it could explain most of the determination he'd witnessed since the training began.

Most, but not all.

There was something more going on inside the young Saiyan's head and it was pushing the kid as hard as he could go to get as strong as possible. He couldn't figure out what it was precisely but, in the end, he decided to just let it go for the time being. It wasn't hindering either of their training efforts and it was often a good thing to have such a strong piece of motivation when trying to get stronger. Until this unknown element became a problem, he'd let it be.

_If it does become a problem, though, I'm going to have to get him to talk about it._ He thought with a grimace and a mental groan. _Too bad I'm not very good at that sort of thing._

Give him a fight or something to do with the martial arts and he could probably teach it like some university professor. Ask him to get someone who was emotionally troubled to open up and talk about what was bothering them and he turned into a complete amateur. Anyone who'd seen his early efforts with Gohan would no doubt have a good chuckle at how awkward it had been, so it was good that his student had kept most of it to himself. However it was due to his shortcomings in this area that he seriously hoped that Xander wouldn't let whatever was going on inside his head to get to the point where getting it all out in the open was the only way to resolve the situation.

It was at that moment that Xander finished going through his current training regime and that meant that it was time for them to spar. Getting to his feet, he proceeded out to where the youth was in the white void and, with only slight bow as a precursor, he slipped into a strong fighting stance. Pushing his ki level up just as his opponent was, he waited for the right opening to present itself before he went on the offensive. The blow was blocked but he'd expected it since, with over a month of experience backing Xander up, he'd have been seriously disappointed if the attack had connected. However the same could be said for him since, almost immediately after his blow had been blocked, the Saiyan executed a two strike combo that he managed to evade and then block.

After that, though, things got decidedly more intense.

From that point on they both tried numerous different strategies to get past the other fighter's guard in order to score a hit. No move was out of bounds because they knew that while Cell might have called his little event a tournament, everyone with a high enough IQ knew that it was just a chance for Cell to kill the competition while inspiring fear into the planet at the same time. With this being the case, he didn't expect that any rules would remain strong for very long and, once Gero's abomination got bored enough playing by the rules, the fight would devolve into a free for all. Fortunately neither he nor Xander were the sort of people that refused to fight dirty when trying to achieve victory so their sparring matches always helped them up their game in that area.

They went at it for at least two hours before stopping due to fatigue.

"Time for a break," Xander said before heading for the kitchen of the living area.

Watching the young Saiyan go, he couldn't help but wonder what could've happened to change the young man so drastically in the space of a couple of hours.

_**Four Months Later, Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Xander's P.O.V**_

"This **won't WORK!**" he exclaimed as he broke off from the exercise that Piccolo and he had been using for the past month and a half.

It had been a simple concept and, on the surface, it sounded like a great way to increase the odds of them being able to keep up with Cell's speed. One of them would zip around the white expanse while doing everything they could to make where they'd be going impossible to predict ahead of time. The other person would be on the offensive with the objective being to get close enough to grab a hold of the front of the zipping person's shirt. By focusing on their given tasks, it was hoped that they'd be able to make it almost impossible for Gero's bastard of a child to put any real distance between them. It was thought that if they could manage that, then all they'd need to work on was making their ki attacks or physical blows powerful enough to actually do some damage.

The only problem, one he'd come to believe in, was the fact that no matter how hard they tried there was no way of knowing just how fast Cell was or how he'd fight since only Trunks and Vegeta had fought the monster in his final form. Without knowing how fast Cell could really move, they could spend the remainder of the year in the Chamber working on this and still not be quick enough or smart enough to keep up with their enemy.

"You don't know that. Neither of us do," Piccolo stated without giving any sign as to how he felt at the interruption, "but every trick and tactic we come up with here is one more for us to use against Cell."

"Yeah, well, like they say back in the dimension I grew up, in quality is more important than quantity," he retorted as he descended to the floor of the expanse. "It won't matter if we come up with a thousand little tricks if they don't do the job against Cell."

Before the Namek could say more, he stalked off angrily thinking about just how much time they'd wasted with this exercise. They only had another six months to go before they'd have to leave the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and, while he was stronger than he'd been, he still wasn't powerful enough for him to be happy. At best he'd reached a power level comparable to where Trunks and Vegeta had been when they'd exited the Chamber but, while that might have been enough to kill Cell in his semi-perfect form, it wouldn't leave a dent in the demonic looking monster the way he was right now. He'd been working his ass off, resting and eating only the minimum amount, but it still wasn't proving to be enough. He had to think of something better, something unconventional, or else the best he'd be able to do when the tournament started would be to act as Goku's back up.

That wasn't **nearly** enough!

He'd tried, he really had, to be content with the fact that it would likely be Goku who'd be the one to finish off Cell but, as the weeks had worn on, his commitment to that course of action eroded away to nothing. Part of it he'd attributed to his inner Saiyan wanting to deliver some serious payback on the abomination that had humiliated him in battle not once but twice.

The rest had been because of the dreams.

He was pretty sure that he hadn't talked in his sleep because, if he had, he was fairly sure the Namek would have confronted him on it and that hadn't happened yet. It was always the same dream and sometimes he would get it for a week straight before it'd suddenly stop only to resume two weeks later. In the dream he was back in the past and he was doing his best to keep Android 18 away from Cell but there was always a sense of fear in the air. It was as if he knew that at any moment, from any direction, the creature would pop out to devour the android he sought. When the beast of a humanoid finally did show up, he'd fight with all his heart and soul but it was never enough. Cell either glided around his blows as though they were in slow motion or treated the attacks as though they held no more power than a gentle breeze. He'd then be completely dominated and slammed to the ground with his body unwilling to move fast enough to stop what happened next.

He was unable to stop Cell from absorbing Android 18.

That by itself was bad but what always haunted him was the look in her eyes as the tail came down towards her, a look she always directed at him. It was the look of someone terrified of what was about to happen. It was the look of someone who was desperate for something or someone to save her. Behind it all, though, was a single statement left unsaid but that he heard ringing in his ears no matter how hard he tried to block it out in the dream.

_Why didn't you save me Xander? Why didn't you protect me?_

It was at this point that he usually woke up with a start, though after the first few times he'd done his best to condition himself to keep from being loud enough for Piccolo to hear. Not that it matter much because, when he tried to come up with an answer to the questions at the end of the dream, it always came down to one thing: he hadn't been able to protect or save 18 because he hadn't been strong enough. He hadn't been strong enough or fast enough or skilled enough to stand up to Cell in his semi-perfect form and that was why Android 18 had been absorbed. It infuriated him how helpless he'd been against the amalgamation of DNA and so, each time he awoke from the dream, he immediately began training to become stronger. He was determined to make it so that when he emerged from the Chamber, he'd be Goku's equal, if not his superior in all the areas that made a great warrior. Then he'd use all he'd gained through the hard months of training to take Cell apart piece by piece and doing his best to make sure the monster felt as much pain as possible while he did this.

That was why he'd gotten frustrated and broken off the training like he had. He had lost confidence in the exercises ability to help him reach his goal.

Reaching the edge of the Chamber's living quarters, he dropped to the ground and assumed a meditation position so he could think up an alternative means of dealing with Cell's speed. Trying to do it the old fashioned way would take too long so he had to come up with some way better.

_So how can I make it so that Cell's speed won't mean shit against me?_ He thought as he ran scenario after scenario to answer that one question.

It was not an easy question to say the least and time quickly lost meaning, given how focused he was on coming up with an answer. In the end, the best he could come up with was that he needed a way to get from point A to point B in a way other than ki propelled flying. He considered using magic by sifting through the archives that likely existed on the Lookout but then the same problem he was currently facing cropped up: time. It would take too long to find the right spell and then master it in time for the tournament. It was when his stomach began to inform him that it was getting hungry that he hit upon an idea that virtually shone with potential. It would solve his problem nicely but the problem, though, was how to adapt the original technique so it could be used as easily as any other in a fight. After all, every time he'd seen the one who'd taught him the original technique, it'd taken a couple of seconds of concentration, among other things.

_Still, it's a better idea than anything I've come up with so far._ He thought as he opened his eyes. _I just need to work on refining things. Not a problem._

Then his stomach let him know that he wouldn't be able to ignore it any longer by emitting a growl loud enough it might very well have been heard by those outside the Chamber.

_First, though, it's time to feed the beast._ He thought with a sheepish grin as he got to his feed and began to make his way to the kitchen.

_**Nearing the End of the Twenty-Four hours on the Outside of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber**_

_**Vegeta's PO.V**_

"Grrr! What is taking those two so long?" He growled as he paced back and forth in front of the entrance to the chamber. "Really! Don't they know they're wasting important people's time?"

"Well they're almost done…just stay…calm," said the pointy eared, turban-wearing fat man that kept everything perfect on the Lookout.

"CALM!" He exclaimed as he lightly (for him anyways) kicked the door. "Oh, I will show you **CALM**! If they stay in there any longer I'll knock that door down and calmly drag both of them out!"

Indeed it was only out of the modest amount of respect he had for his half-brother Xander that he hadn't done so sooner. As one of only three pure blooded Saiyans left in the galaxy, the youth from another dimension wasn't something he could just dispose of on a whim like that idiot, Nappa. When added to what he'd learned of the young man during their year of training in outer space and he considered Xander to be a far better example of what it meant to be a Saiyan than Kakarot. Nevertheless, waiting was not something he was good at and forcing himself to endure the delay to his training was grating on his last nerve. He was about to turn around and follow through on his threat when something caught the fat man's attention.

"Look! They're done!" The pointy eared man said, looking directly at the clock that hung over the door to the Chamber.

"Finally!" He growled before turning to witness the emergence of the duo.

As the door opened slowly, he almost made a comment about how contemptible it was to make such a dramatic entrance but stopped once he felt the power levels of the two. Though he'd never admit it, Piccolo's strength had increased by a respectable amount since the Namek had entered the Chamber. It still wasn't enough to defeat Cell but it might make the green-skinned fool last a bit longer than he otherwise would have. Turning his examining gaze to Xander, he could sense a similar but greater increase in power there as well and, like Kakarot, the former teenager had chosen to practice remaining in a Super Saiyan state all the time. It was a brilliant idea and one he might very well attempt himself but only if he could improve upon the concept to the point where it would be significantly superior to what Kakarot had devised. What caused an itch to manifest in the back of his head however was that he couldn't quite figure out just how powerful his relative really was. He knew that Harris was stronger than the Namek and he'd be confident in saying that Xander was stronger than when he'd left the Chamber the first time, but beyond that he could sense nothing for certain.

_It's almost as though he's learned how to distort his ki signature,_ he thought, looking at the young Saiyan with growing annoyance. _But how is that possible?_

As if knowing what he was thinking about, Xander smirked at him with confidence that bordered on arrogance. This only annoyed him further because, for all he knew, the idiot really had managed to somehow surpass him. Well, it wouldn't last because once he underwent his second year inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he would emerge stronger than anyone.

Especially Kakarot!

"Alright! Out of my way." He declared as he marched towards the entrance to the Chamber.

He was just about to step into the Chamber when Xander asked, "Why are you even bothering Vegeta? Even if you somehow become stronger than Cell, which I don't think you will, you'll just screw things up again. Just like always."

"What!"

"You heard me. I've heard enough stories about what happened on Namek and seen enough since we first met to know you follow the same pattern every time," Xander stated without an ounce of fear. "Every time you get even the smallest power boost, your ego takes control and you wind up getting your ass handed to you by whomever you pick a fight with. It wouldn't be a big deal if only you got killed but I have a big problem with you getting the rest of us vaped in the process."

"Why you insolent little bastard!" He exclaimed in anger, this time fully turning to face the one who was insulting his honor.

"Yep, that's right! I am a bastard. After all as far as I know, my mom didn't marry Bardock before she had me, so as far as definitions go bastard fits." Xander said without a speck of concern in his voice, "Still, better a bastard than a complete jackass like you."

Anger rising at the repeated attacks against his pride and anger, he barely registered both his son Trunks and the Namek stepping in between his position and Xander's.

"That's enough. The enemy we have to beat is Cell, not each other." Piccolo pointed out, obviously wanting to maintain some semblance of unity between the fighters opposed to Gero's creation.

He was about to tell the Namek to get the hell out of his way so he could teach his younger half-brother a lesson about respecting his betters when, without saying anything, Xander began to walk away, completely ignoring those behind him. The insults, the summary dismissal, were more than enough reasons in his mind to pound the cretin into the ground but realized that that was probably precisely what the child of Lanthir and Bardock wanted him to do. The novice warrior was probably trying to provoke him so he'd have the perfect excuse to take advantage of the results of his training without repercussions.

Well, he wasn't going to let the punk have his way.

Without further delay, he turned around and strode into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber before slamming the door closed behind himself. With determination burning in his soul, he vowed that not only would he become strong enough to repay Cell in full for humiliating him, but he would also remind that bastard son of his mother of his place. Xander might be of royal blood through his mother but he was also the son of a low-class Saiyan warrior and, if they were back on planet Vegeta, he'd have been considered an embarrassment and summarily exiled to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Since he no longer had the authority or the ability to exile Harris, he would at the very least beat some respect into him sooner rather than later.

With those thoughts revolving in his mind, he strode out into the white expanse that made up virtually the entire Chamber and began his training.

Training that would allow him to claim the title of the strongest warrior in the galaxy once and for all.

_**The Skies Over Parsley City, Eight Days Later, Late Morning, Xander's POV**_

_The day of your death has finally arrived, __**Cell!**_ He thought as he flew alongside the others towards the location of the Cell Games. _I hope you've had a good time with that complete body of yours because tomorrow, both you and it are going to be nothing but free floating molecules!_

With the big day finally here, he had made sure to put his game face on before taking off from Capsule Corp HQ and since then had kept his mind on the task at hand. Already he had come up with a few likely scenarios as well as some precautions just in case a certain **someone** decided to be more annoying than he was prepared to deal with. It had taken some time to gather the info he wanted to make it all work but, fortunately, there were quite a few people who could point him in the right direction. Now he had a school bag full of tools that he could use to deflate a giant-sized ego enough so that he could focus on killing Cell or at least softening him up.

Looking ahead, he easily spotted the rest of the Z warriors and quickly adjusted his course to hook up with them, dressed in a fresh and unweathered set of clothes tailored to match the combo outfit he'd chosen after arriving back on Earth from his involuntary trip into outer space. Bulma had said that while the clothes might look normal they were made from fabric made out of cutting edge material that would be much more durable. Apparently it was a mini-offshoot project from recreating the Saiyan battle uniforms she'd made for the others to wear upon exiting the Chamber. According to Mr. Briefs, he was thinking of approaching the military to see if they'd like to have their future uniforms made out of the stuff. It wouldn't be enough to protect the soldiers from a respectable ki blast but little things like bullets and most minor explosives would be hard pressed to do more than bruise someone wearing a uniform made by Capsule Corp. It was a good idea but he just hoped that the soldiers didn't get big heads after a little bit of time wearing them because then they'd be complete jerks.

Jerks that he'd be hard pressed not to kick the shit out of if he ever bumped into one, like someone else he could think of.

"Hey, Xander!" Goku said with his usual simple smile. "You ready?"

"Born ready! Cell is going down!"

"Glad to hear it." Goku said before looking ahead in the direction where Cell's tournament would be.

"Hey, what's in the bag?" Krillin asked curiously as he flew through the air alongside the others.

"Just a little precaution to deal with a potential problem," he replied with a grin at the most likely scenario he'd thought up. "Nothing really important."

"What potential problem?" Tien asked sounding curious.

"You'll see," was all he said in reply.

Flying through the air at their present speed, it didn't take much time to reach their destination and, when they did, he saw precisely what he'd expected; Vegeta stood to one side of the fighting platform with his terribly cliched 'I am a badass' look on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. What a complete piece of crap! The so called Prince of all Saiyans hadn't had beaten anyone other than flunkies since he'd first set foot on Earth. All the serious big bads like Freiza were defeated by someone else and every time the Vegetable had tried to take down the latest Big Bad, he'd wound up getting his ass killed or at least severely beat up. Cell, in his semi-perfect form, had been the only time that his half-brother had come even close to taking down the top villain and still he wound up screwing things up. Add it all up and Vegeta had no justification for acting like he was some sort of big shot with a perfect record to gloat about.

Android 16 was also there standing on another side of the ring, looking determined but that was about it. The mechanical being reminded him a lot of Oz in the speaking department, just like the werewolf back home. In terms of fighting capabilities, though, he didn't expect much from the android because, while the warrior might have proven to be enough to beat Cell in his imperfect form, the male had proven ineffective after the first transformation. He hadn't really inquired about what sort of work Bulma and her father had done on 16 but assumed that they just repaired what needed repairing. After all, he'd heard enough to know that the plans that had been acquired quickly proved useless as Android 16's design was completely different from Android 17's. Therefore it was unlikely that the blue-haired girl genius had done anything to upgrade the white hat android.

The next group had him almost rolling his eyes in disbelief even though the guy in the white cape had been on TV often enough saying he'd be fighting Cell. Hercule Satan, winner of the World Martial Arts Tournament at least seven times, was standing in the right with the reporter who probably had an exclusive deal that stated only he would be permitted to interview Mr. Satan. He'd seen a few of the broadcasts but had only needed to watch one to know that while the guy **may** be the world martial arts champion at the moment, he was picking a fight with someone **WAY** out of his league. As he landed with the others, he could tell that aside from Cell, Vegeta and Android 16, no one else had ever seen people using ki to fly before. Add to that the fact that Hercule barely had above human ki levels and they would be lucky to survive a blow from Gero's abomination. Not that he expected the winged monstrosity to waste even a bit of ki dealing with the moron and his fan club but it'd be amusing to watch one way or another.

Cell himself was standing in the middle of the ring with his arms crossed over his chest doing a decent impersonation of a statue. He wished that the monster was a stone statue so he could pound the bastard into dust just like Buffy had done to the bones of The Master. He knew his wish would not be granted so he shoved the wonderful imagery aside. The time had come to focus on reality not on fantasies no matter how appealing they might be.

In response to their arrival Cell finally dropped the statue routine and said, "Welcome, welcome everyone!"

It was just a charade that the abomination was playing a role in so no one with half a brain took it seriously. Of course that left Hercule and his little media posse in the dark but then they didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. The reporter looked like his mind was about to break in two trying to understand the arrival of the **real** competitors in the tournament while Mr. Satan tried to keep his cluelessness under wraps.

Trying and failing, of course.

Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned his head and watched as the giant Android 16 approached the group or, more specifically, Goku. Krillin was the second person to notice and welcomed the machine like he was already one of the group. He'd learned from Bulma that the short bald guy had actually been the one responsible for keeping the others from turning the titanium titan into spare parts. She'd glossed over the long-time warrior's reasons but muttered something about the good guys needing all the help they could get. Of course then Goku introduced himself and, like someone flipping a switch, the big guy took on a more hostile posture than before. No doubt the machine was fighting against Gero's programming to kill the destroyer of the Red Ribbon Army but, even if the giant lost that fight, he wasn't too worried. Goku in his Super Saiyan form was powerful and the leader of their group of warriors could become even stronger if given a few seconds. No Android could touch Gohan's dad, even if that android had proven himself to be stronger than Piccolo after the Namek had fused with Kami. In the end free will triumphed over programming as Goku turned towards the ring and began to crack his knuckles in preparation to be the one to fight Cell first.

"Okay, then! Let's get this going and, if you want, I'll be first." Goku said as he finished loosening up his knuckles.

"Goku, you don't have to be the first one to fight," Trunks said, no doubt believing that they should save Goku for last so that the rest of them could soften Cell up.

Not a bad plan but he doubted that that would be how things would go.

"What do ya say, Vegeta?" Goku asked, turning to the cocky Saiyan prince.

"Be my guest. We all know it'll be me who finishes off Cell," replied Vegeta without even looking at the other survivor of the planet Vegeta.

"What about you, Xander? Do you mind?" Goku asked, turning in his direction.

"Go ahead. It'll be something to watch one way or another," he replied, not really caring if Goku wanted to go first.

Before the arguably strongest warrior present could enter the ring, though, the news reporter that had been at Hercule's side approached them with uncertain steps.

"Excuse me, sir, but I was wondering if you or your friends were going to take part in the tournament?" Stated the man as he bent over a bit to look them all in the eye.

"Of course. I'll be going first," Goku said with no fear or hesitation to be had in him.

Of course the simple-minded Saiyan had said just a bit too loud since, with all the stealth of a stampede of elephants, Hercule charged over and shoved the reporter to the side.

"I've had just about enough of you clowns!" Mr. Satan yelled with anger at those that were stealing **his** spotlight. "Now clear out of here before I get angry!"

"Yeah, yeah, don't pop a blood vessel." Krillin muttered, clearly humoring the idiot.

"I forgot you ignorant hicks have spent your whole lives playing banjo in the woods so you don't realize that I, Hercule Satan, am the martial arts champion of the world!" Hercule yelled as though his words were supposed to mean something.

Naturally everyone stared at the idiot like he'd just said the most stupid thing in the entire world.

They weren't completely wrong.

"And the other challengers have been left totally speechless!" Spoke the reporter with a little too much drama. "By the one and only **MARTIAL ARTS CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!**"

Naturally Hercule took that as a sign to strut his stuff some more but it didn't really do much other than make the real fighters wonder who this idiot thought he was kidding. Of course this only caused both caped wonder and his media posse to try harder to show everyone else just how impressed they should be.

"I say we let cretin caveman over there go first," Krillin suggested, clearly not impressed with the current world martial arts champion.

"You think we should?" Goku asked, sounding a little uncertain about the wisdom of that course of action.

"There's no use in trying to stop him, Goku." Krillin replied with a resigned look on his face. "He's not the sort of guy that'll listen to reason."

"I've still got to try," Goku said before raising his voice. "Listen Mr. Satan if you fight Cell you're going to get yourself killed."

Just like he'd figured on the flight there, both Hercule and his media promoter were looking at Goku like he was some nobody who had no clue what he was talking about.

"Okay, Lionel, get a close up of the guy with the big hair," said the guy who he'd found out was named Jimmy Firecracker of all things. "Just moments ago this long haired guy had the audacity to tell the people's hero, Hercule Satan, to back down from the tournament! Imagine telling the World Martial Arts Champion that he was going to be beaten! Having followed Mr. Satan's career over the years I have one question to ask: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!"

"That's my queue." He said as he took the five inch thick pile of paper from his back pack before raising his voice. "You want to know who this guy is, Mr. Firecracker? Well the facts are all here..."

_**The Side of Cell's Ring, Goku's POV**_

"What's that Xander?" Goku asked as he looked at the papers that his half-brother took out of his backpack.

"Just some information I managed to get an official from the organization that is in charge of the World Martial Arts Tournament to send me," Xander replied as the reporter walked over with Hercule following. "I had a feeling that these bozos would pull something so I thought it'd be better for them if they made an informed decision rather than run their mouths off."

"What do you mean?" asked the reporter Xander had called Mr. Firecracker.

"Take a look for yourself," Xander replied handing the pile of papers to the man. "The first three sheets are about Goku here. As you can see, this is Goku Son and he was the winner of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament before Hercule first entered. He was also a finalist in both the 21st and 22nd Tournaments as well."

Both Hercule and Mr. Firecracker looked pretty surprised by this for a moment before looking through the first few pieces of paper.

"If you keep going, you'll see information on Mr. Tien Shinhan here," Xander said pointing to the warrior in question. "He was the winner of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament and was a semi-finalist in the 23rd Tournament."

Both of the men looking through the papers took a moment to look at Tien before finding his information in the papers they held. More and more it looked like they were beginning to realize that they weren't looking at a bunch of nobodies like they'd originally thought.

"Then if you go a bit further, you'll see Mr. Green and Pointy eared here was the runner up for the 23rd tournament, entering under the name 'Ma Junior'," Xander continued before crossing his arms over his chest. "Just about all of the fighters you see around me have competed in the World Martial Arts Tournament at one point or another, so they've got just as much right to be here as you do, Mr. Satan. As for Goku telling you not to fight Cell, he just doesn't want to see you get hurt. He knows a whole lot more about this bastard then you do."

For the next five minutes Hercule and his friends looked through the papers, only looking up every once and a while as if to confirm that the people in front of them really were the ones in the pictures on the papers. Eventually, though, they stopped and with the clearing of his throat the reporter seemed ready to say something.

"While I admit that there's a certain…resemblance…between these past Tournament competitors and the people around you, it still doesn't justify insulting Mr. Satan." Mr. Firecracker said, trying to recover from the information he'd just been given. "After all, if Goku, if that's who he really is, was such a strong martial artist, then why hasn't he been in any tournaments? Was it perhaps because he knew he couldn't beat the great **Mr. Satan**?"

"Nope. It was because he got married after the last Tournament and then had his son, Gohan, to raise." Xander replied, pointing to Gohan. "As a family man yourself, Mr. Satan, I'm sure you know how important it is to take some time off from fighting to raise your daughter Videl, right?"

The mention of his daughter seemed to take Hercule by surprise, putting him distinctly off guard but the fact that the cape wearing man recovered soon after was somewhat impressive.

"Of course! While I do have obligations as the martial arts champion of the world, I always take some time off each year to spend with my darling daughter." Hercule said with conviction that appeared to be mostly genuine and honest. "She's proving to be a chip off the old block, too! Another five or so years and she'll be good enough to enter the World Martial Arts Tournament as a part of the adult division."

"Good to hear. As for the rest of my friends here, they had their own reasons for not fighting in the tournaments but I won't go into that," Xander said before looking at Mr. Firecracker. "They're here now and they're ready to fight, so I'd appreciate it if you could keep from slandering their good names just for something as trivial as a soundbyte. After all, a good reporter deals with the facts, right? Unless of course you practice yellow journalism…"

This last comment did not sit well with Mr. Firecracker and it looked like the guy was quite angry indeed, but after a moment seemed to calm down somewhat.

"I am a professional reporter! I know how to separate fact from fiction." Mr. Firecracker stated with a hint of animosity. "Nevertheless, where does your friend Goku get off telling Mr. Satan to back down? This tournament is open to anyone and if the great Hercule wants to compete, that's his choice."

"Of course. While personally I'd prefer to listen to the voice of experience, you're right in that it's Hercule's choice if he wants to fight Cell," Xander stated, sounding honest and completely okay with the idea of Hercule fighting Cell. "I just hope he's smart enough to realize that there's a time to fight and a time to accept that you just can't win."

While he hadn't wanted to see Hercule get killed trying to fight Cell, he had to admit that a good point had been made. This was a tournament and not one that he was in charge of, so he had no real right to block the man's path. Besides, with Dende bringing back the Dragonballs, the guy could be wished back if he wound up dying here.

Stepping back from the stage, he said, "Alright, Hercule, you can go first."

"Finally you say something smart!" Hercule said with his usual bravado as he prepared to take off his cape. "Get ready to see what the current World Martial Arts champion can do!"

While he still believed that Hercule Satan had no chance whatsoever of defeating Cell, he had to admit to being a little curious about how good a fighter the guy really was. After all, he could still remember the times he'd fought in the World Martial Arts Tournament and there'd been some pretty decent fighters there. Not many of them had a decent grasp of ki manipulation but the different styles of martial arts each of them knew made up for that in a big way. Watching as Mr. Firecracker continued to play to the television audience, he wondered if Chi-chi was watching all of this and that thought instantly made him dread what he'd encounter when he and Gohan got home after Cell was defeated. He loved the woman dearly but she could be pretty darn scary when she wanted to be, especially when she threatened to stop cooking for him. Hopefully it wouldn't take her long to cool down because there were only so many times you could crash at a friend's place and get a good home cooked meal.

"Hold on, everybody!" Came a high pitched woman's voice from above. "It's time kick things up a notch!"

Looking up it was an… interesting… sight to see a neon pink helicopter coming to a stop over the ring. A few moments later a blonde guy with a rose in his mouth and some other larger guy with a helmet on his head that was shaped like an elephant's head jumped out of the craft and into the ring. They looked reasonably fit but it only took him a moment with his ki sensing ability to tell that, like Hercule, they didn't have a clue about manipulating their lifeforce energy, nor did they stand a chance against Cell. As a redheaded woman in a weird pink outfit jumped out of the helicopter and into the waiting arms of the elephant guy, it became clear that she was similar to Mr. Firecracker in that she played up the prowess of the two fighters she represented. As he watched them go through what he presumed was some sort of skit, he could tell without either of them saying anything that they were students of Mr. Satan. There was something… unique… about them that made it impossible for them to be anything else.

It was then, though, that there was an unexpected development in the form of Hercule's two students insisting on fighting Cell for Mr. Satan. For a moment he thought the cape-wearing man would tell the two younger fighters to stand down but instead Hercule decided to allow them to face Cell in his stead. He couldn't help but dislike this choice since it was his position that a teacher should always look out for the well-being of their students and never let them fight someone they could get killed fighting. Still, he had to make some allowances for the fact that, since Mr. Satan had no knowledge of ki manipulation, the man had no way of understanding the danger that came with fighting Gero's final creation. As he watched the guy in white with the long blonde hair stay in the ring while the others exited to the side, he decided the best he could do is watch and try to make the most of the situation.

_I wonder what style of martial arts is taught at Mr. Satan's dojo?_ He thought with wonder since he'd never seen the current World Martial Arts champion fight.

_**Fifteen Minutes Later, Piccolo's POV**_

_Now that the imbeciles are out of the way, we can really get this tournament underway._ He thought as he watched Hercule Satan fall to the ground after being flung from the ring by Cell's energy.

Watching as Goku stepped into the ring, he couldn't help but wonder how long it would take for him to see the reason why his one-time enemy had been so confident after exiting the Hypberbolic Time Chamber. It had been like an annoying fly buzzing around his head ever since Goku had left the Lookout that day and, while he hadn't let it affect his training, he still wanted to see the source of his ally's calmness.

As Goku stood across from Cell, with both fighters trying to stare the other down, he wondered who would make the first move. There were pros and cons to everything when it came to fighting, with it sometimes being to your advantage to allow your opponent make the first move while in other situations you needed to go on the offensive and keep the momentum going on your side. All around him the assembled allies of Goku, as well as his rivals past and present, commented on how interesting the match before them would likely be. He had to admit to a certain amount of interest as well since this would be a challenge unlike all others before it for the unquestioned champion of Earth. Nevertheless, in all of the time he'd known the simple minded fighter, he'd never seen Goku fail to meet a challenge and overcome it. It might take some time and some training but the fact that all of them were still standing there proved it beyond a reasonable doubt.

Still… every winning streak had to come to an end sometime. Would this be Goku's turn to fail?

_I hope not._ He thought as he continued to watch the occupants of the ring carefully.

He pretty much ignored the trash talking Cell started tossing in Goku's direction because, truth be told, he'd already heard the majority of it before and had even come up with a few good lines himself back when he was evil. Considering the bug man in the ring was comprised of DNA from just about every strong fighter ever to set foot on planet Earth, it was feasible that much of the creature's dialogue would be repeats of what the DNA contributors had used in the past.

He just hoped that Goku attacked and shut the jackass up before too long or else he was going to rip off his own ears just so he wouldn't be able to hear anything.

In fact, he was tempted to do it right now if for no other reason than to keep himself from hearing the idiot group's mindless babbling. 'Lost his footing' had to be the worst excuse for getting knocked outside of a fighting ring he'd heard in his entire life. It was almost as bad as the idiot's ego, which was the only powerful thing about the man. Hopefully once the so-called champion got a good look at how dangerous Cell really was, he'd get enough activity going in the few brain cells he had and realize he was **WAY** out of his league.

Putting his focus back on the ring rather than the group of morons, he watched as both fighters slipped into their own unique fighting stances. Immediately he could see a difference between the Goku from the training sessions prior to the arrival of the androids and the one standing in front of him at that very moment. The few imperfections he'd seen in the man's stance during the training were gone, leaving only a form that was perfectly arranged to handle whatever Gero's creation had in store for him.

He just hoped that it was enough.

It was a moment later that the fight began but he could quickly tell that neither fighter was going all out at the moment. They were just feeling each other out and warming up a bit before getting down to the true test of strength between them. To the untrained eye, though, it'd appear as though they were roughly even in strength but he was pretty that the only ones who'd see that were the moron group and some of the less observant members of his own group. For five straight minutes Cell and Goku traded blows, neither of them gaining a decisive advantage until the latter charged the monster and attempted to knock Cell from the ring.

It wouldn't work, though.

So long as Cell even had half a coherent mind, it would be all too easy to use ki to keep from touching the ground before rising up back into the ring, which Gero's creation did moments later.

"Sorry, Goku, but did you really think you had defeated me?" Cell asked arrogantly as he set foot back into the ring.

"I won't fall for your cheap tricks, Cell. I knew it wouldn't be that easy to beat you," Goku replied, slipping out of his battle stance a bit.

"I thought it'd be appropriate to play a little joke since you aren't fighting me seriously." Cell said, crossing his arms over his chest in a superior manner.

"Hey, you're holding back as well," Goku countered with a Saiyan smirk on his face.

"Little by little I shall reveal the perfect power that lies within me," Cell said as it looked like he was ready for another round.

The banter went on for a few minutes longer, with both warriors trying their hand at battling with words rather than punches or kicks. Eventually, though, they both got bored of it and the real fighting resumed, though this time at a much quicker pace than before. It easily reached the level where only those with experience at following high speed combat could see what was going on and so, naturally, that left the group of morons around Hercule wondering what the hell was going on.

He didn't care, though.

He had to stay focused on the fight because the level of speed being employed by both Cell and Goku quickly began to reach the upper limits of what he could follow with his eyes. Back and forth they went, trading blows while attempting to gain a strategically favorable position with neither fighter managing to maintain an advantage for long. Then, with only a few moments warning, both combatants were right in the middle of them, floating four or so feet off the ground, with Goku trying to punch Gero's vile creation all the way down to the ground. It didn't last, though, since, in the blink of an eye, they were gone in a burst of speed that caused all to lose them, if only for a couple of seconds. Surprisingly enough the test of speed came to an abrupt end when both fighters appeared over the ring with their hands locked together. Both attempted to overpower the other but it was too evenly matched, resulting in Goku breaking it off by using his feet to kick Cell away before appearing behind the monstrosity to deliver a hard blow to the back. This sent Cell flying towards the ring but he didn't think anyone really believed that the abomination would actually hit the ring back first. His former nemesis sure didn't as he quickly followed his falling foe in order to keep the pressure up and his enemy off balance. Due the displaced air, dust filled the ring for a time, obscuring the two warriors, but when it cleared both were going at each other with significant intensity. Deflected or blocked energy broke up the surface of the ring but no more than an inch or so into the stone.

Eventually, though, it looked as though Cell had Goku on the ropes as he creature used blow after blow to inch the latter ever closer to the edge of the ring. He wasn't worried because he had fought with the Saiyan enough times to recognize the signs of Goku just having fun. It was only when the ki blasts started firing that they'd really be fighting one another for real. As he watched Goku vanish from the edge of the ring, he had to wonder what the purpose was behind the play fighting going on before him. He understood the principle of feeling your opponent out at the beginning of a fight but that usually didn't take more than a couple of exchanges and this fight had already gone on for fifteen minutes.

"Oh, you're good!" Cell said with humor as he turned to face Goku, who'd reappeared behind him.

Goku only smirked and chuckled a bit at the statement.

Then the fight was back on, Cell starting things off this time with an aerial missile charge which turned into an attempt to once more push his foe from the ring. However Goku was ready this time and allowed himself to fall back, kicking Cell into the air before following, all the while preparing to unleash his signature move. Cell, however, flicked it away with a backhand but realized too late what the rest of them had caught onto: the ki attack had been a diversion. With a blur of movement the Saiyan appeared behind the black-winged monster to deliver a brutal punch to the back that had Cell reeling for a few seconds. However, much like Freiza and Vegeta, the amalgamation of DNA was quick to retaliate for the deception by delivering two blows that send Goku down to land hard on his feet in the ring. This heralded another intermission in the fighting as the two combatants looked at each other from a different side of the ring.

"Alright! I suppose that was a good enough warm up," Cell declared with malicious casualness.

"Yeah I'd say we're ready to get serious now," Goku said in agreement with the usual Saiyan smirk never leaving his face.

On all sides of the ring the two were watched carefully until, in a burst of ki, Goku began to power up with just as much strength as that brief hint that the Saiyan had given them when he'd gone to Korin's place. However, as time went on, the premiere Super Saiyan of the current century quickly surpassed what he had thought would be the champion's limits. More and more energy gathered within the glowing golden form in the ring as the light emanating from the life energy grew brighter. It was indeed a sight to behold and no one could deny that the levels of power that the fighter was both approaching as well as passing were unbelievable. Then, with a mighty yell, it was done and, with energy making him pulse with light, the best chance the planet had of surviving Cell had brought to bear his full power.

Only one question remained: could Cell match this show of power?

_**Xander's POV**_

_Well I guess this officially puts me in my place._ He thought with awe as he felt the power coming from the leader of the good guys. _If Goku can't beat him when he's this strong, I wouldn't stand a chance._

It angered him that even after a full year of backbreaking training with Piccolo in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that he still wouldn't get his chance to finish Cell off himself. The desire, the **need**, to be the one to make the bastard pay for every life he'd taken had burned like a raging inferno inside of him and motivated him to squeeze everything he could out of the training. In fact, there had been times when the only thing that had kept him from burning himself out had been the Namek knocking some sense into him. Fortunately it had never gotten to the point where the pointy-eared former villain would've asked what was eating at him because then he would have had to train on his own. He'd known from the beginning that if anyone learned what was going on in his head, they'd give him 'the look' that just about everyone gave a person who was in an atypical relationship. The Trunks from the future would likely start ranting at him about how 'evil' the androids were and how twisted it was to fall for one of them but it didn't matter. He'd thought a lot about what had been revealed about the androids from that other timeline, that other dimension, and he believed that the moment Piccolo had merged with Kami the events that had haunted the teenager wouldn't happen.

It wouldn't happen because of one thing: limits.

In that alternate timeline the androids were so powerful that no one, not even the best of the Z warriors, had been able to put up a decent fight. All of them had died within an hour of the first punch being thrown and, because of this, the deadly duo had been free to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. It was due to this lack of opposition that the Android 17 and Android 18 turned into such sociopathic monsters, or at least that was what he thought. After all, when you grow up there are limits set before you in everything you do and everywhere you go. The consequences of trying to go past those limits were what keep ninety-nine percent of the population from doing things that would create chaos wherever they went. Eventually those limits and the associated consequences cause you to build up your entire life around them as well as how you behave in the presence of others. With the androids of future Trunks' timeline, there was no one who could stop them, whether it be with words or actions, and so nothing to stop their descent into schitzo-ville.

That wasn't the case in this reality/timeline.

In this timeline Piccolo had proven that he could fight on an even playing field with Android 17 and if Cell had never come along, he had confidence that the Namek would have succeeded in destroying his opponent. Even if Mr. Green Genes hadn't, Vegeta or Trunks most certainly would have succeeded since the Prick of all Saiyans had mopped the floor with Cell after the asshole had achieved his second form. Now that Goku and Gohan had succeeded in their training, that was another two people who possessed strength enough to stop the androids in their tracks. With at least four people capable of defeating them and, if necessary, destroying them, the existence of both limits as well as consequences would be a very real reality for the duo. This would prevent the rampages of that nightmarish future from lasting for more than a day at best. When you also added in the fact that the power the androids possessed was artificial rather than earned through training, you had another element to consider.

All of the androids with the exception of Cell had design limitations.

No matter how powerful they were, all of the androids created by Dr. Gero were limited by the technological designs that gave them their awesome power. Just like every technological device on the planet, there was a limit to what they could do either because their parts couldn't be pushed any further or their creator simply couldn't figure out a way to make them any more advanced than they were. Even Bulma and her father, certified geniuses in their chosen fields, could only go so far with their inventions before they hit a brick wall. Therefore, while undoubtedly powerful, it was impossible for the androids to get any more powerful than they already were or, rather, had been without someone even smarter than Gero coming along with some upgrades. Considering that the odds of that were rather slim, the artificially enhanced beings had ceased to be a threat the moment one of the Z warriors had become strong enough to stop them.

Not that his reasoning mattered much right now.

Both Android 17 and… and Android 18 had been absorbed by Cell, never to walk this world again, so his logic was useless now. That didn't stop him from thinking about it, though, and going over in his mind how things might have been.

He was knocked out of his thinking when, in his usual copycat fashion, Cell began to power up as well, displacing air and assaulting all with the ability to sense ki with his power. It didn't last long but, if he had to make a guess, he'd say that the two of them were still about even in terms of power output. As Goku walked towards Cell, he had to wonder which of the two would make the first move. It fights like this there were pros and cons to everything, including being the one to take the offensive first, so it could be said that the one who lost their patience first would be the one to attack.

Surprisingly enough it turned out to be Goku who threw the first punch, followed by an elbow, and then a kick that sent Cell into the air. From there things got interesting as the two continued to exchange blows at a speed that could barely be followed even by someone who was used to battles on this level. Eventually it seemed to devolve into a trading of blows where Goku would land one, only to receive one from Cell a second later. Things evolved further when Cell used the multi-form technique to create three duplicates of himself, no doubt in an effort to overwhelm his foe with numbers. Too bad Cell didn't take into account the fact that Goku had faced this particular move many times before and was more than ready for it. That was not to say that he didn't take some hits but he proved to be more than up to the challenge as he led the four Cells into the air and pulled a hat trick, sending the villains down to the ring. For a moment he thought it might be over but, when he checked the bastard's power level, he knew it wasn't the case. The asshole's ki was still as potent as ever and his beliefs were verified when Cell got back to his feet and used a variation of Krillin's destructo disc technique to try and slice Goku into little pieces.

It didn't work, though, since Goku had experience with this technique as well, allowing him to easily evade them time and again. Eventually Cell got tired of the move and decided to try something different as the abomination began to gather his ki for a potent move that all were able to identify once the technique began: Goku's own signature move, the Kamehameha.

_Okay, while this isn't exactly a surprise, it's still __**NUTS!**_ He thought as he watched the one being he hated the most continue to execute the technique. _Putting that much power into that technique is going to blow a large chunk out of the Earth no matter where it hits!_

Fortunately Goku knew this as well as he immediately took to the air to draw the attack into the sky, but as fast as his half-brother was, the technique was faster. Just as it looked as though the hero of Earth was about to take a serious hit, the guy blurred for a moment and that was all the hint he needed to figure out the rest. Smiling, he watched as the blue beam of energy soared into space, only for its target to appear behind Cell and deliver a blow that sent the winged one flying. Of course the monstrosity had to recover quickly but it was still satisfying to watch the so-called perfect being try to figure out how he'd missed.

Then, of course, like the simple-minded fighter that he was Goku just had to blab out the name of the technique he'd used and given its name Cell would have clues enough to figure it out.

_If we live through this I'm __**SO**__ telling that brother of mine that it's never a good idea to fill in the blanks for the bad guys before the fat lady's sung._ He grouched as he wondered what kind of damage this might do to the good guys.

When Cell suddenly disappeared and began to trounce Goku with speed that the champion couldn't keep up with, the possibility of there being a later began to shrink at an alarming rate. Like the others, though, he held onto the belief that their ally would figure out a way to turn the tables on his opponent and put the momentum back on their side. His faith was rewarded as minutes later his sibling managed to increase his speed to match Cell's but it was still touch and go since both of them were just that damn good. When the two fighters took a moment to breathe high above the ring, he could tell that something was going to change in the next few seconds.

"HEY! GET AWAY FROM THE RING!" Yelled Goku from his spot in the air.

Taking half a second to look at Cell, he quickly realized what was about to happen and began to move away from the ring. As he moved, though, he noticed a lack of movement from that idiot Hercule and his group. The idiots didn't realize what was about to happen and, even if they did, the likelihood of them getting clear of the ring in time was nil. With a growl he changed his course and moved to pick them up so he could carry them to safety. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Android 16 had similar ideas and, with a few quick hand gestures, he pointed out who would carry whom. Not waiting to see if the android agreed to the dividing of the helpless and moronic, he latched onto Hercule, Mr. Firecracker and the cameraman in one go before taking to the air as quickly as he could. Fortunately it turned out to be quick enough as he managed to get far enough away from ground zero that all he felt was the edge of shockwave.

Setting down his passengers with the rest of their group, he looked about for a minute before finding out where the others had relocated to.

"Y-you saved our lives. Both of you!" Exclaimed Mr. Spitfire with a mix of disbelief and a bit of gratitude.

"You should all leave this area at once. It is no longer safe for you to remain," Android 16 intoned before he began to walk towards where the Z warriors were.

"Yeah, right! The show must go on and the World Martial Arts Champion still hasn't gotten his shot at Cell." Stated Mr. Firecracker, who looked as though he was beginning to doubt his position.

"How can the show go on if you all get killed? Now that Cell's changed the rules anything is possible and you're more likely to get killed if you stick around." He said before dismissively looking at Hercule. "As for him getting a shot at Cell, he had his chance and got backhanded into the side of a hill for his trouble. It's time you guys faced the facts and realized that he's got about as much chance of making a difference here as a snowflake does of cooling things off in hell."

"That was an accident! I lost my footing and knocked myself out of the ring!" Hercule protested, not at all happy about someone he didn't know making him to be a loser. "That doesn't count!"

"Of course it counts! Nowhere in the rules Cell laid out did it say that a fighter couldn't eliminate themselves accident or not." He growled back as he turned to leave. "Besides, if you ask me, it's even more humiliating to get knocked out of the ring by 'losing your footing' then being smacked out of it by your opponent. At least if you get knocked out of the ring by your enemy it'd be because the other guy was stronger. Leaving the ring because you screwed up just means your incompetent!"

"WHY YOU!" Hercule yelled, looking like he wanted to pound the upstart kid into the ground.

"Yeah, yeah! You're upset, I get it, but to tell you the truth I don't give a shit how you feel." He said, turning his back fully on the group. "You're useless here and the only thing you'd accomplish by sticking around is giving Cell hostages to use against the **real** fighters here. So why don't you do everyone a favor and get lost!"

"You can't talk to me like that! I'm the world champ!" Hercule yelled, sounding like his anger had gone to his head. "You just wait and see! All I need is one good opening and I can bring Cell down!"

"One good opening, huh? Okay. Howsabout we make a little wager?" He asked, deciding to throw the pathetic loser a bone. "If you can make a respectable contribution to this fight, I'll teach you the basics of fighting with ki like everyone else here. If you can't, though, then you have to promise not to take all the credit when Cell is defeated. Deal?"

For a moment it looked like the blowhard would back down but then, it a show of courage (or perhaps stupidity), Hercule replied, "You're on!"

"Then its deal. Make sure you remember everyone's name when you're interviewed later." he said, before rising into the air to fly over to where the others were.

However, as he crossed the distance to his destination, he wondered who had really come out ahead in that little bit of verbal sparrage because he had a sinking feeling it might not have been him.

_**Gohan's POV**_

_I wonder what Cell's going to try now?_ He thought as he watched the two fighters look at each other. _Dad's already proven he can match the guy in speed and strength, so what's left?_

As he took in the battlefield with the others, he tried to figure out what would happen next but, before he could decide on the most likely possibility, the present became the future as an explosion tore up the ground where his father had been a second earlier. Ki blasts seemed to be the weapon of choice now and, with great speed, Cell fired them at his Dad, possibly in an effort to keep his father on the defensive. It didn't last as a counterattack was swift in coming, one that produced enough confusion to allow his Dad to get in close enough for hand-to-hand combat. The punches weren't thrown for very long before they locked hands, turning things into a contest of strength once more, the ground around them being the only thing to give way. It quickly went back to fighting, though, since neither his father nor Cell were the sort to waste time on a tactic that wasn't getting them anywhere. Not that kicks or punches or ki blasts were proving to be very effective either since both warriors had an arsenal of tools at their disposal.

After a series of multi-vector ki blasts almost did his dad in, though, his father took to the skies to no doubt set up a suitable counter move.

However no one could have foreseen what happened next as his Dad began to execute the Kamehameha.

"Everyone! Get away! Goku's going to unleash the Kamehameha!" Piccolo yelled in shock at what his former foe was about to do.

All around him he could hear the others try to convince themselves that there was no way their leader would fire that ki attack from his present position. He understood why because, much like before, it wouldn't matter where the technique hit, the devastation would be the same. He didn't want to believe his Dad would do something so reckless but, as the figure in the sky continued to go through the motions of the attack, he began to accept that what he was seeing was what would be happening in a few moments.

"No! Don't do it Dad! Please **stop!**" He cried out even though part of him knew his father wouldn't be able to hear him.

Then, in an instant, his father blurred out of existence only to reappear less than four feet from Cell and, with the villain's exclamation of defiance, the Kamehameha was fired at point blank range. The destruction that was unleashed was blinding, the light forcing everyone to look away from ground zero for the next few minutes. When the smoke and dirt cleared, though, everyone was shocked to find the bottom half of Cell lying flat on the ground with the top half apparently vaporized by the attack. Like the others, he wanted to believe that his father had finally done it but, like Piccolo and his Dad had taught him, he chose to trust his ki sense instead. Reaching out with this ability, his previous joy was deflated as he realized that Cell's power level was still there. Normally when someone was killed, their life energy would just seep away into the air like evaporating water but that wasn't happening here. Despite lacking the upper half of his body, the monster was still alive, even if a sizeable chunk of the creature's power had been taken out.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM GOKU! CELL'S GOING TO REGENERATE HIMSELF!" Krillin yelled as loud as he could.

In an instant all the necessary facts fell into place and he knew that the reason why Cell's body wasn't losing any energy. The remains of Gero's creation kicked itself to its feet before the exposed flesh on the top began to writhe and squirm with life. Then, in a single thrust, Cell returned himself to normal, viscous green liquid dripping from his regenerated parts, showing what had been grown back. He heard Piccolo's angry statement about how Cell just wouldn't die and could sympathize completely with his first teacher's mood. No matter what they threw at the monster, he just kept coming even when the creature had no right to whatsoever. However, as he watched his father bring forth what remained of his power, he was reassured by his Dad's refusal to give up. The battle resumed and, while it looked for a moment like Cell had the advantage, his father was quick to put himself back on even terms with his foe.

Everyone knew that his Dad had put everything he had into that one Kamehameha and was quickly using up his reserves. Nevertheless, every time it looked like Cell had the advantage, his father found some way to turn things around. Still, his Dad needed to finish things quickly because, with his ki level quickly dropping, it'd only be a matter of time before Cell turned things back in his favor for good. Even though his father's bombardment of ki blasts seemed to be doing the trick, for the time being it would take one all-powerful blast to truly finish things.

A blast that was too late in coming because Cell defiantly created a barrier of energy that grew larger and larger, easily proving strong enough to block his Dad's blasts. His father was quick to clue into this and soon ceased his attack in favor of conserving what strength he had left. He could hear Cell's gloating but he didn't take it seriously because, after hearing Freiza gloat, every other bad guy just sounded like a copycat. As he watched his father descend to the ground, he waited along with everyone else for the man who had saved the planet so many times before to come up with some brilliant strategy or technique to gain the advantage once more. With every second that passed, though, that seemed more and more unlikely because his father was losing strength a lot faster than Cell was at the moment. Looking over at Krillin, he was glad that his friend had a pouch of Senzu beans on him since all it would take would be one to restore his Dad to full strength. Then he could pound Cell into the ground and win this battle.

However in a surprising move, Piccolo spoke out against the idea, backed up by Vegeta of all people, albeit for very different reasons. Some started to argue about this but eventually they all chose to wait and see if his father had some last minute trick up his sleeve. In a move that shocked everyone, though, his Dad suddenly released all the power he'd been holding onto, letting it slip away into the air. Now his father's power level was down even further than before, putting him just above the level of a normal Super Saiyan and then Goku spoke words that he never once thought he'd hear.

"It's over Cell. You win. I give up."

Shock, anger and fear were the emotions all felt, he himself finding it impossible to believe that the man he admired so much had just done the last thing anyone thought he'd do. Cell was furious that his grand fight being brought to such an unsatisfying end but his father merely met that fury with words. Gero's creation would have none of it and declared that he would destroy the Earth if this really was the end of the match.

"Not so fast, Cell. You may have beaten me but there's still one more person here for you to fight," stated his father, causing a new series of questions to pop up.

"You can't be serious! Who? One of them!" Cell asked in a voice loud enough to be heard. "And who exactly did you have in mind? Vegeta? Trunks? Maybe Xander? Please! Don't waste my time."

"So you don't mind if I pick your next opponent?" His father asked with surprising confidence.

"You're actually letting this farce continue?" Asked Cell with a question of disbelief.

"I know it sounds crazy but you'll see soon enough just how strong this guy is," replied his Dad with a smirk now showing on his face. "Seeing as how this guy is stronger than me, you should have a lot of fun fighting him. Of course you probably won't think it's fun for very long since he'll pound you into the ground pretty quick."

"A bold statement. You certainly seem to have quite a bit of confidence in this mystery fighter of yours," Cell said, actually considering the words. "Well let's hope that your confidence is well-founded. Bring this mystery savior of yours out. Now!"

"Alright!" His father said before turning to where the group was standing, "Hey guys! I'm afraid I won't be able to win this fight so I need someone to take over from here. That someone is you, **son**."

You could have knocked several of them over with a feather right then.

_This has to be one of dad's worse jokes_, he thought to himself. His father was the strongest fighter they had and if he couldn't win, what made his Dad think that he could? It didn't make any sense! Sure, he might have come a long way from the person he was when Piccolo started training him to fight Vegeta and Nappa, but he still wasn't anywhere near his father in terms of strength. Sending him out to fight Cell right now would be suicide! He was in such a state of shock that he almost didn't notice his father flying over to them but the sound of feet landing on dirt snapped him out of his daze of confusion. Looking at his father, he could tell that his Dad really believed that he could do it but he couldn't think of anything to lend credence to those beliefs.

"You can do it, right?"

"Me? Fight with… Cell?"

"Goku! Stop this! Think about what you're saying!" Piccolo exclaimed in anger at his former rival's decision. "Think about what's going to happen if you keep going like this! If Gohan fights with Cell, he's going to **DIE**!"

"No, he's not. Gohan has a power within him I can't even begin to understand. We've all seen it come to the surface before," his father said, not shaken in the least by the Namek's words. "Not only that but he's managed to keep up with the rest of us without any real problems."

"Hey, Goku? We all know Gohan is strong for his age but…fighting Cell?" Krillin asked, looking back and forth between father and son.

"You're just going to have to trust me," his Dad said as he walked forward. "I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't one hundred percent sure that Gohan could do it. Gohan, at any point in the fight, did you have any trouble keeping up with me and Cell? Was there ever a point where you lost track of us?"

"Well…no…" he replied before his doubts took hold again. "But that's only because you and Cell weren't fighting with your full power."

"Well I don't know about Cell but I promise you I was fighting as hard as I could out there. You thought I wasn't fighting with my full strength because you were comparing your power to mine."

"Is this true, Gohan?" Piccolo asked, sounding like he'd come to a realization.

"Yes."

"You see, son? You have more power than you know," his father said with love and trust. "Now go out there and win this thing so we can all go home."

Looking into his father's eyes, he had to wonder if there might be some truth to the faith he saw. If his Dad's full strength really was equal to his own, then maybe he really could win this fight.

Putting on a brave face he said, "Alright. I'll do it, Dad."

With those words he took off his cape, took to the air and landed in the middle of the battlefield. Looking up at Cell, he prepared himself for what would most likely be the most difficulty challenge of his life.

_**Cell's POV**_

_This has to be a poor joke on Goku's part._ He thought as he looked down at the boy his desired rival claimed could defeat. _Gero's files included one on Gohan and, while the child might be stronger than others his age, the punk won't even require half my strength to defeat._

"Hey Cell! Catch!" He heard Goku say before something small was thrown at him.

Out of reflex more than anything else, he caught it and, when he opened his hand, he was surprised to see one of the famous Senzu beans.

"You should probably take it now since you're not going to have a chance to when the fighting starts." Goku said, not losing the look of confidence on his face.

Listening as the Saiyan's allies berated him for the mistake, he had to wonder at the man's motives himself. It was ludicrous enough that Goku thought his son could succeed where he had failed but to offer a means to restore his child's enemy to full strength was borderline insanity. Perhaps the bean had been poisoned somehow or perhaps had been enchanted prior to being placed in the pouch with the others. No, that wasn't Goku's style. The experienced fighter was notoriously honorable and would never agree to stoop to such a level to win a fight even with the fate of an entire planet at stake. Thus, with confidence that the fool had just made a fatal error, he popped the bean into his mouth and chewed it thoroughly before swallowing. Within seconds the mystical properties of the Senzu bean took effect and he found himself becoming stronger than ever thanks to the Saiyan DNA in him. Letting his ki field manifest, he let it glow with all due strength letting the sight of it inspire fear in the hearts of his foes.

"So, are you ready to fight, child?" He asked Gohan, who stood on the ground looking up at him.

With a scream the boy began to climb in power, his energy disrupting his surroundings and pushing all things too weak to stand up to him away. It was somewhat of an impressive sight as the ki he felt from the lad was distinctly higher than he'd originally been expecting. Higher and higher the power soared until the son quickly managed to surpass the father in strength, thus making him believe that perhaps there was a 'flicker' of truth to Goku's earlier boasting.

"Okay Cell! I'm ready!"

With a bit of speed he descended until he stood a little over twenty feet away from the lad, deciding to give himself a handicap to keep things interesting. After all, while he felt the boy might prove capable of giving him a decent fight, he was still certain that Goku had had a brief period of insanity thinking that the child could beat him.

"Well, I'll give you this boy: you're certainly loyal," he said, deciding to start with some head games. "Not many people would be willing to die fighting their father's fights for them. Your devotion really is quite admirable."

Hearing Goku and the others cheer the boy on, he decided to test the lad to see if he had what it took to keep up. The first of his blows was blocked successfully but that didn't really mean much since he hadn't put much power behind it. It was then that he began to rain down blows on the boy, only to see each of them evaded quite nicely. Rising into the air at a quick rate of speed, he quickly began to see if the child could cope with aerial combat and found that being in the air didn't seem to make much of a difference.

"You're pretty fast." he said as the two of them took a quick break from the exchange of blows. "What do you say we kick things up a notch?"

It was then that he put some real effort into his movements and, much like he expected, the boy was unable to keep up. Punch after punch he landed on the boy until finally it got boring, causing him to simply kick the lad back to the ground, causing dirt and stone to get knocked into the air. Watching he was somewhat impressed when he saw the lad rise to his feet with no real sign that the punishment he'd received was affecting his movements. Landing once more, he wondered if being more durable than expected was the lad's only true strength or if there was something more. Intrigued by the possibility, he shot into the air once more and, before anyone but the best could react, he fired off a ki blast at the halfbreed. It was successfully dodged but this only prompted him to pick up the rate of fire and rain down more blasts in an effort to strike the boy. There were a few stumbles in the beginning but the pre-teen boy quickly adapted and soon was evading the energy attacks much like he had the punches earlier.

_Let's see if he can handle a drastic shift from ki blasts to physical attacks._ He thought as he began to deliver punches and kicks at an ever-increasing rate of speed.

Much like his father, the child tried to keep up but it quickly became clear that he had the advantage.

"Nice try, boy, but I'm afraid it's time to drop the curtain on this little diversion." He said before he fired a ki blast to end the boy's life at point blank range, "HHAAAHH!"

Seeing the kid actually penetrate the stone protrusion for more than a couple of feet, he thought he just might have overdone it a bit. Then he remembered that when you're trying to kill someone there was no such thing as overkill.

Looking up at Goku he said, "It appears that I have won, Goku. Now are you going to get back down here and fight me or not?"

"Nope! Look behind you!" Goku replied with that insufferable smirk on his face.

Turning his head slightly, he looked at the rubble that remained of the large stone he'd blasted Gohan into and saw nothing impressive at first but then, with an explosion of energy, all of the rocks were blown away to reveal a mostly unharmed child. Watching as the boy walked up to him, he had to wonder what had gone wrong. He had been so sure that the blast he'd delivered had been more than enough to kill the kid but there Gohan was, completely alright save for a few bloody scrapes.

"Well, I have to admit you've managed to surprise me," he said with amusement. "I truly thought you'd been killed."

"We don't have to do this, Cell. This fight is meaningless," Gohan said in an oddly calm tone.

"You sound just like your father," he said with a chuckle. "Do you really think that all it's going to take to make me stop is a few well-chosen words?"

"Yes," was the only reply, one made with complete seriousness.

"Then I think my last attack must have knocked something loose inside your head because you're clearly not thinking straight," he said incredulously as he looked down at the lad. "Let me make something crystal clear for you: You have no say in the matter! Unless you fight and defeat me, I will **destroy THE EARTH!** How's that for meaning?"

"That doesn't change the fact that I don't want to fight you, Cell. Despite everything you've done, I don't really have a desire to kill you," Gohan replied with no more emotion then before. "Please think things through. This doesn't have to continue. You can stop all of this right now."

"Yes, yes, I could stop this right now but I really don't want to. I'm having too much fun and I want to have as much fun as I can with this worthless mudball before I destroy it," he said, deciding to play along for the time being. "Besides, isn't it just a little silly for you to be saying that you don't want to kill me? Sure, you have a few nice moves, but I'm clearly the stronger warrior between the two of us. What makes you think you could kill me? I really would like to know."

"I know now why my father said I was the only one who could beat you. Years ago when I was just a boy, a Saiyan named Raditz came to Earth. Much like you, he enjoyed causing pain and when my father refused to help him 'cleanse' a planet, he inflicted that pain upon my dad," Gohan explained, seemingly lost in his memories as he spoke. "I was trapped nearby in Raditz's space pod with no way out but I could hear my father's screams easily enough. Every time he cried out, I felt a sharp pain in my heart at not being able to do anything to help. Eventually the pain became so great that I lost myself to it and, when that pain turned to rage, I became determined to save my father no matter what the cost. I had power I had never felt before and I was able to weaken Raditz enough for Piccolo and my father to beat him. That wasn't the last time the power hidden within me surfaced though.

"Over the years, anytime I was pushed too far it awoke from deep within me, granting me power that should have been impossible for someone my age," the boy continued, spinning his little tale. "I had no control over it, though, and it always seemed to vanish once the immediate crisis had passed. I can't really remember much about what happened while it manifested but I do know that being backed into a corner is a big part of it. Over the years I've gotten stronger, my Dad even thinks I'm as strong as he is now, and he believes that if you push me too far this hidden power will awaken. What he doesn't realize, though, is how little control over it I have. If it wakes up, there's no telling how much destruction I'll cause."

It seemed utterly implausible but, at the same time, he could see hints of it peeking out from within the child. If Gohan really did possess this great power, then fighting him would be the perfect challenge for him before he left this world behind for good. All that he needed to do was test out the best ways of bringing this mystery power to the surface and he already had a few good ideas.

"As intriguing as this story has been, I'm afraid it didn't work," he said with a smile on his face.

"What!" Gohan exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well, not in the way you intended. Instead of succeeding in trying to scare me into ending this fight, you've piqued my interest. Indeed you've given me something to shoot for," he said with a hunger in his voice. "Now that I've learned about your 'hidden power', I'm determined to see it for myself!"

With that final sentence he went on the offensive and attacked the child with the intent of backing the boy into a corner so that this 'great power' would have no choice but to come out. Harder and harder he attacked, mixing in the odd bit of psychological warfare to keep things interesting. However, despite the physical and mental beating he was giving the child, the punk seemed determined to deny him his goal. However, if the brat thought that he would give up easily, he was sorely mistaken. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the child actually managed to land a blow strong enough to draw a trickle of blood from his mouth.

"Not a bad start but not nearly enough to satisfy me. Still, if that blow was any hint, I seem to be on the right track. Let's continue."


	19. The Final Finale Fight

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write because I like to and because there are those who like to read my work

_**Xander's POV**_

_I hope you're right about Gohan, Goku,_ he thought as he watched the young warrior continue to take a beating. _If not then you can kiss the trust and faith of everyone around you goodbye._

Indeed he had been as skeptical as the rest of them when Goku had sent his son to fight Cell and, even after Gohan's initial power up, he had possessed doubts as to whether or not the youth had it in him to beat Cell. He'd heard all the stories about how powerful Gohan was for his age, as well as the explosions of power his nephew exhibited whenever he was pushed too far. The question he wanted answered was what made Goku think there was any power still hidden. It was logical enough to think there'd be some hidden potential when the kid was younger but, after all the training Gohan had done and all of the progress the youth had made, it was possible that everything was already out in the open. Watching as Cell placed Gohan in a bear hug, he found himself wishing that there was still one room full of hidden power left in the preteen because, if there wasn't, then he was about to see his relative die.

He could hear Piccolo reaching the end of his patience and his respect when it came to obeying Goku's wishes. Not that he could blame his recent training partner since he was itching to get in there and help his nephew, but Goku's words were making sense. No matter how strong his desire to help was, he simply didn't possess the power needed to make a difference in the fight going on between Gohan and Cell. While he might have been more powerful than Vegeta and Trunks, he wasn't stronger than Goku and that's how strong he'd need to be to allow his blows to have the desired effect on Cell. It infuriated him but, at the same time, he accepted that at the moment he had no choice but to let Goku's little scheme play out a little more.

It was then, though, that the Namek pointed out a critical flaw in Goku's plan.

For all his potential as a warrior, Gohan wasn't a fighter at heart. He didn't possess the same instincts and drives that pure-blooded Saiyans did when it came to fighting. In a way his nephew was more like a human in how he behaved and thought, which meant that when confronted with a foe stronger than him, Gohan was more likely to feel fear and despair. If this was the case then the furious power that Goku was expecting wouldn't be coming out anytime soon and that meant Gohan would die at Cell's hands. With that in mind he decided that all previous plans would now go in the trash and he would now go to save his brother's son.

Before he could do so, though, Cell tossed the young man to the ground and then flew in their direction. Faster than his eyes could see, the abomination flew by them but, when none of them keeled over dead, he wondered why the monster had bothered. The truth came moments later when Krillin exclaimed that the pouch holding the Senzu beans was gone.

THAT was bad!

With Goku, the only person who stood a chance against Cell, still worn down, there was now no way to rejuvenate him so that he could help his son. Watching as Gero's creation talked trash to Gohan, he was almost ready to power up and charge in there when his eyes caught another form diving at Cell from behind: Android 16.

In a move that surprised everyone with its effectiveness, the mechanical giant succeeded in putting his fellow artificial being in a bear hug. It made no sense, though, since Bulma hadn't done anything more than repair already existing systems and those had been completely insufficient when they'd been used against Cell in his semi-perfect form. What could he possibly hope to accomplish now? The answer came from the artificial human himself when he revealed that he intended to activate his self-destruct system and blow himself up while taking Cell with him to oblivion. It sounded completely out there but, since he didn't know how powerful this self-destruct bomb was, it was entirely possible that it could be strong enough to work. The question, though, that he wanted to know was how far did a person have to be to escape the blast because, if it was truly powerful enough to kill Cell, then it wouldn't have any trouble killing the rest of them.

As the giant began to yell and glow, he immediately braced himself from one helluva blast.

As blast that didn't come, though.

"YOU CAN'T, 16, BECAUSE YOUR BOMB… WAS **REMOVED!**" Krillin yelled out, causing everyone's jaws to drop in shock, save Cell's. "IT'S GONE NOW!"

As Krillin explained, he learned that Bulma and her father had removed the explosive during their repairs they'd conducted on the artificial life form because they just didn't trust that 16 wouldn't go after Goku once Cell was defeated. While from a logical point of view and he could understand why they did it at the moment, he really wished that they hadn't because it put them right back where they were a couple of minutes prior: depending on Gohan to save the day. There was one difference, though, because, in a show of physical and ki might, Cell powered his way out of the bear hug 16 had put him in and then blasted the A.I into dozens of pieces. Everyone was shocked by this because he was fairly certain that while they didn't consider the giant a friend, he was an ally and it was never a good thing to see an ally killed right before your eyes. Then, in a show of disrespect, Cell kicked the artificial human's head into the air to land no one knew where. It didn't really surprise him since the bastard was evil incarnate but it did give him one more reason to deliver some payback to Gero's genetic creation.

It was moments later that something truly bizarre and disgusting happened when, out of nowhere, Cell began to expel masses from his tail. They numbered eight in total but it wasn't until they began to move and stand up that he recognized them as a bunch of mini-Cells that would be lucky if they reached three feet tall. The eight pint sized Cells took the air, heading right for them, and he realized what Big Pappa Cell had in mind. If hurting Gohan didn't bring out the power, then he would hurt the ones close to the little warrior.

_Typical supervillain behavior!_ he thought as he began to power up as quickly as he could. _Can't get the hero to do what they want, so attack those close to the good guy and use them as leverage._

Thinking about the little trick he'd modified in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he decided to keep it hidden up his sleeve for the time being until he had a better idea of how strong the tiny terrors were.

He didn't have long to wait as it took less than a minute for Cell's creations to reach the cliff where he and the others were standing. With his power at two thirds of his maximum, he took a swing at the mini-Cell that had targeted him and learned to his dismay that, while small, the sadistic servants of Cell were more dangerous than they looked. They were fast enough to keep up with his speed and, as he learned from blocking the blow from his tiny opponent, their strength was enough to seriously jar the bones in his arm. Picking up his game and focusing on skill rather than brute force, he managed to keep the damage he took to a minimum but he honestly didn't think that he'd be winning anytime soon. More and more he fought to keep from losing to his enemy but, as he did so, he could hear that the others were having a little more trouble with their sparring partners than he was. Delivering a one-two combo to temporarily take his foe out of the picture, he turned to look at the others. From what he could tell, the Super Saiyans and the Namek were holding their own but the rest were just barely managing to make their defeat a slow one. That wasn't good, though, because if one of them went down, the others would lose their focus as they worried about the fate of their allies and then things would just snowball from there.

_Time to bring out my secret weapon and hope that it's as good as I think it is._ He thought as he cleared his mind in preparation for what would come next.

In his mind he imagined a sphere around himself and in that sphere he could sense all living things from the smallest plant to his own life energy. Then he pushed outwards, the sphere expanding on what he could sense by feet per second until it was just big enough to encompass the entire cliff. Feeling the energy of the mini-Cells, of his allies and everything else, he burned the information into his mind. Then, like flicking a switch, he executed the technique he had originally learned from Goku but had modified so that it could be effective in combat.

In the blink of an eye his location changed so that he was right behind the mini-Cell that was battering Goku and, before the tiny terror could do anything, he delivered a powerful kick that sent the little imp off the cliff and to the hard ground below. He didn't stop there; again and again he went from one location to another, appearing in just the right spot to take the heat off of his friends by knocking their little foes to the side. He never stayed in one location any longer than it took to execute his attack and, because of this, none of the creations of Cell had time to realize what was happening. By the time he was done, all eight mini-warriors were down on the ground, looking a little dazed but still in good enough condition to fight.

Coming to a stop, he took a breather but never let the focus waver because he knew it wouldn't be long before he'd have to do it all over again. He just hoped that one of the others came up with a plan to turn things around permanently because, at best, the technique of his was just a stop gap measure. Sooner or later he fully expected the mini-Cells to either figure out a way to render it useless or Cell himself would get involved.

_**Piccolo's POV**_

"Took you long enough!" Piccolo snapped as he tried to recover some strength. "What were you waiting for? An engraved invitation?"

"Sorrry! My mistake for thinking that we could handle a couple of pint sized Cells!" Xander snapped back as he watched Cell's shock troops recover. "Can't argue with the results, though."

As much as he wished he could, he had to admit that the long weeks of training they spent perfecting this variation of one of Goku's techniques had paid off.

"The results of what? How did you do that?" Goku asked, looking a little worse for wear.

"What you just saw is the end result of months of training, trial and error," he replied for the younger Saiyan, who didn't need unnecessary distractions at the moment. "It's a modified version of your Instant Transmission technique."

This floored everyone but thankfully Xander didn't let them stay in shock for very long as he picked up the next part of the explanation.

"When Piccolo and I were training in the chamber, I spent every day trying to figure out new ways to be faster or stronger. At first I just used the normal methods that everyone used but even cramming every bit of training I could into each day, it was taking too long," Xander explained while never letting his eyes waver from the eight menaces that would soon be back in their midst. "Unless Piccolo or I had some sort of lightbulb moment, the best we'd end up doing would be to come out a little bit ahead of Trunks and Vegeta. That wouldn't be enough to kill Cell. It was when I went over each detail that inspiration hit me. What was the key reason Trunks couldn't beat Cell when he had the chance?"

"He was too stupid and weak, of course!" Vegeta declared angrily.

"Nope! The answer is speed," Xander said, not paying the Vegetable any mind. "You had all the power you needed to beat Cell, Trunks, but because you couldn't keep up in the speed department your muscles pretty much meant nothing. I knew that by training I could get just as strong but I'd need a way to make up for the speed difference to put my muscle to good use. Increasing my speed enough to do that wouldn't be possible so I needed a new way to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. That's when I remembered the Instant Transmission technique.

"It's a technique that lets the user go from one place to another in the blink of an eye so long as that person has a ki signature to lock onto," Xander explained with a bit of hurry as the small Cells were now looking back up at them. "So I figured 'what if I shortened the distance by a lot?' and the more I thought about it, the cooler it sounded. I mean, one of the problems with moving around physically is that a person with sharp enough eyes can follow you. By teleporting there's nothing **to **follow expect a spike in ki."

"I helped him work out most of the kinks inside the Chamber but near the end we knew he'd need to use every minute he had once he got out to take it further," he said, finishing things up. "He'd need to be able to sense not only the life energy of living animals and people but also plants in order to keep himself from teleporting into a mountain or a wall. From the looks of things, his hard work paid off."

"Mostly, yeah, but keeping a lock on every living thing is like keeping a muscle tensed up," Xander said as the mini-Cells flew towards them again. "I won't be able to keep it up for long!"

That was the last anyone could devote to a conversation as the tiny terrors were in their midst once more and he was forced to devote all his attention to keeping himself alive fighting his foe. It wasn't easy but, thanks to some occasional interference on the part of Xander, he was confident that this battle could be dragged out much longer than it otherwise would have lasted. Countering a foe that could disappear and reappear in the blink of an eye was no easy obstacle to overcome, whether you were a naturally trained fighter or a crime against nature. He'd been a bit pessimistic when Xander had originally approached him with the idea but, as he saw the young man improve week after week, the potential of the variation of the Instant Transmission technique became clear. By the halfway point he was entirely focused on helping Goku's half-brother perfect the modified technique so that when they left the Chamber it'd be ready.

Secretly, while the Saiyan slept, he'd tried to use the technique himself but, despite making some progress, there was some trick to the move that he was missing. For some reason, whenever he tried it, he kept materializing well short of his destination and no matter how many times he went over what he knew, he couldn't figure out where he was going wrong. By the time the two of them left the Chamber, he'd decided not to use the technique in the fight against Cell due to his lack of proficiency in it.

_If we somehow manage to survive this, I'll have to ask Xander or Goku to teach me how to do it right,_ he thought as the pressure being put on him rose. '_If' being the operative word, of course!_

Despite his best efforts to manipulate his opponent into a fatal situation, the child-like Cell was proving to be just as infuriating as the fully grown one when it came to dying. No matter how hard he hit the thing or how powerful a blast he sent its way, the monster continued to outclass him in virtually every measurable way. The only thing keeping him from being killed outright was his years of experience and the fact that the amoral abomination seemed content to draw things out. Still, he knew where the fight was going and, as he heard Xander express shock, he realized that the battle might get there sooner than he'd thought. Giving the young Saiyan a quick glance, he now knew that one of the mini-Cells had nearly hit the kid, which meant the monsters were beginning to adapt. While reminding him of Vegeta's Saibamen in terms of size and insanity, it would be wrong to think that they possessed no skill at fighting. With alarming speed they were beginning to catch onto Xander's move and would likely soon be able to beat it along with its user.

The end wouldn't be long in coming after that.

"ALRIGHT CHILDREN! PLAYTIME IS OVER!" Came Cell's voice from the ground below. "KILL THEM NOW! FIRST ONE TO KILL HIS PLAYMATE WINS A PRIZE!"

In the most brutal way imaginable he quickly learned the truth of the small Cells because, a second after their master spoke, both the strength as well as the speed of the creatures tripled. No longer was he able to get the occasional blow to land and blocking quickly, he came to rely on luck rather than any skill on his part. Blows that at one time he'd believed would only leave bruises were now making him wonder how long his bones would last before they broke. Hearing the cries of pain from the others, he could tell that they were in similar situations with Krillin, Yamcha and Tien getting the worst of it due to the power gap between themselves and their opponents. He'd known, just as he was sure they'd known, that even with all the training they'd done in preparation for the coming of the androids, that they would be no match for Cell. Yet they had come anyway to lend what aid they could to their friends and such a noble gesture could not be turned away.

He just hoped that they didn't wind up dying because of it.

Landing a lucky blow, he managed to get some distance from his foe but, even with the breather, he could come up with nothing that would change things for the better.

"RRRAAAAGGGHH!"

A scream of rage came from below and, in an instant, he was forced to know who it'd come from whether he wanted to or not.

"Gohan!" He gasped in something just shy of disbelief as he felt his first pupil's power hit his senses like a supernova.

The power… it was unlike anything he'd ever sensed from the boy before and, every time he thought it would level out, it just kept going** UP**. Looking at the young warrior, he couldn't even begin to guess how much more powerful he was but, if this was what Goku had been so confident about, he couldn't blame his rival one little bit. With this power…

Unfortunately his attention was quickly and painfully diverted elsewhere as two of the mini-Cells kicked him from above, plunging him into the ground beneath his feet. It was enough to cause cracks to begin to form in his collarbone but he pushed the pain aside as he clawed his way out to the side so as not to be kicked right back in by his waiting adversaries. Bursting from the side of the cliff, he immediately turned to face the two who'd attacked him only to find them almost on top of him. Acting on reflex, he began unleashing a barrage of ki blasts in the hope of driving them back but they danced around his attacks like he was calling out where he'd be firing next. Before he knew it, he was face down on the ground with almost every important part of his body letting him know how much pain it was in. However, when he heard Gohan scream out in rage once more, he was heartened to sense the kid's power resume its upward climb.

_Cell's digging his own grave and he doesn't even realize it yet!_ He thought with a smile on his face as he shakily began to get back to his feet. _Oh, this is going to be __**good!**_

Looking on with the others, he got his first glimpse of Gohan's new level of strength when, with speed he couldn't follow, the son of Goku managed to snatch the pouch of Senzu beans from Cell's hands before the abomination realized it. Gero's ultimate creation was so shocked that a crack showed up in the cocky being's behavior, revealing the surprise for all to see. Gone was the so-called perfect being and, for a moment, there was a person who considered that he may have made a mistake.

_It won't last, though,_ he thought as Gohan vanished from sight with unparalleled speed, only to appear in front of one of the mini-Cells. _Cell's got too much of Freiza and Vegeta in him to see the truth._

And, just like those two fighters, Cell would find out firsthand that defeat can come from the most unlikeliest of places.

_**Trunks' POV**_

Unbelievable.

It was the only word that in his mind that did any justice to what he was seeing as Gohan managed to obliterate one of the mini-Cells with a single hit to the back of the neck. Even with all the strength he had gained himself through training, it had been almost beyond his capabilities to just maintain a stalemate with the miniature monster he was fighting. For the younger alternate dimension version of his sensei to be able to do it in one blow almost made him think he was hallucinating, but he wasn't.

The others were in similar states of disbelief but, when the young half-Saiyan disappeared only to reappear across from the two creatures that had been tormenting Krillin, they had no choice but accept that right now the most powerful person on the battlefield was Gohan. He could hear his father express his disbelief as well as his frustration but he hoped that the former Saiyan prince wouldn't let his anger at being surpassed control him. While he might not have been raised in the traditional manner of his father's people, nor really understood how his father thought, he knew that being the best was very important to his Dad. The man truly believed that as a member of the royal household of the planet Vegeta, it was only natural for him to be the best and to have the best. It did not sit well with his father when Goku managed to achieve the goal that he had set for himself and, every time it happened in the years that followed, the anger at being upstaged only got worse.

_If we survive all of this, I just know that my Dad's going to resume his training and keep at it until he's stronger than Gohan is right now,_ he thought as he watched two mini-Cells use Krillin as a hostage.

For a moment he thought that perhaps the tiny terrors had hit upon a workable strategy but, when Gohan raised his arm, he realized that something had changed. The young hybrid was gathering energy to the extended arm as though he was preparing to blast the two little monsters, even though Krillin would be caught in the blast. This was completely unlike the Gohan he knew and his first thought that it was a bluff of some kind but, if so, then it was only a partial success as only one of the two mini-Cells ran off in fear. Wondering what the younger version of his sensei would do next, he was surprised to watch the build-up of ki continue until a pulsing sphere of energy manifested. Was Gohan really going to go through with it? Sacrifice Krillin to dispatch one of Cell's twisted creations? Fortunately it didn't come to that as the final remaining mini-clone lost its nerve, took to the sky and fired a trio of energy blasts at its enemies. The force of the blast was impressive but it didn't take long to see that it was wasted energy as Gohan appeared above and behind the tiny creature with Krillin in his arms.

Then with a blur of speed his sensei gently put Krillin down near Piccolo before going right back at the second clone. A pause of precisely two seconds occurred before a vicious thrust kick from Gohan caused the abomination to explode into a million pieces. For a minute he pictured something similar happening to Cell himself but past experience though warned him that it probably wouldn't be that easy. For all their power, the mini-Cells were essentially combat drones with a limited IQ. Fighting Cell, who was the deadliest creation that Dr. Gero had ever made, would be another matter altogether. Watching the young warrior set down a few feet from Cell, he wondered if he was about to see the two of them fight each other directly. This turned out not to be the case, though, since the remaining Cell Juniors took up positions all around Gohan in a clear attempt to box the preteen in. A moment later they attacked but, for some odd reason, he wasn't really all that concerned about this timeline's version of his sensei getting hurt or killed. With the power and speed the young Super Saiyan had exhibited so far, he very much doubted that numbers would make any real difference. This was proven when Gohan managed to not only evade every one of their attacks but also destroy one more mini-Cell in the process.

The second time the remaining four tried it didn't fare any better because, in the space of time it took the pouch of Senzu beans to fly up into the air and come down again, his sensei had managed to knock all of them to the ground with minimal effort. Then with an explosive release of ki he flung the four remaining Cell Juniors in all directions like they were rag dolls, with one flung so hard as to cause it to penetrate solid stone. With every confrontation he witness, he found himself making new estimates as to where Gohan's upper limits had to be at the moment. There was no sign of strain or exertion on the kid's face and he had just done moves that would have left the rest of them a little winded.

As he watched, though, he saw that the tiny terrors had decided on a new tactic that focused on setting up Gohan for powerful ki attacks. The Kamehameha, Special Beam Cannon and Tri-beam attack were used all at the same time cause a massive explosion to light up the sky, almost to the point where he had to look away. He didn't, though, and was rewarded with a sight that made him both happy as well as a little in awe because after all the smoke had cleared he could clearly see that Goku's son was just fine, not a scratch on him. Then, with a combination of a multi-directional ki blast and several well placed physical blows, Gohan decisively destroyed each of the remaining clones. It made it clear to him, if no one else, that preteen could have destroyed them at any time, that they'd never been any threat to him at all, and had likely only chosen to kill them just now in order to move onto the real threat, Cell.

"Pass these around, Trunks." Gohan yelled before tossing him the pouch of Senzu beans.

Out of reflex he caught it and then said, "Sure."

With only a little hesitation he began to move around to all of the various Z warriors, giving each of them a single Senzu bean. All the while, though, he did his best to keep an eye on both Cell and Gohan because he knew that this was going to be one fight he wouldn't want to miss even a second of. Seeing the two staring each other down, he could tell that Cell was not happy this turn of events because, instead of just an interesting challenge, the monster now had a real threat to his existence. In a way he found this reminiscent of what had happened between his father and Cell in his semi-perfect form. Just as before, the cocky warrior had given up certain victory for the chance at a real fight, only to find out too late that he might very well have sown the seeds of his own destruction.

The look on the evil being's face was **priceless!**

It was as he got to Krillin, Yamcha and Tien, though, that he realized that it might be a good idea to put a little distance between the two opposing fighters and themselves. With the amount of power Gohan now possessed and the sort of destruction Cell was capable of unleashing, it was not entirely unrealistic to think that they might get caught up in the battle. After moving on to Piccolo and Goku, he was able to just catch Gohan charge Cell head on only for the so called Perfect Being's counterattack to hit nothing but an afterimage. Looking up into the sky, he was able to quickly locate the real Saiyan-human hybrid, who was looking down at Cell with those cold blue eyes.

Cell wasted no time in flying up after his little mistake and launched into a series of physical attacks, no doubt intended to help the murdering monster re-establish his place of dominance. All the punches and kicks did, though, was make it clear that Cell was completely outclassed and that Gohan was in the driver's seat of this fight. Then came a contest of blows where his sensei went on the offensive and Cell was forced to defend either by evading the attacks or blocking them while counterattacking. However, throughout the entire altercation, not once did it look as though Gohan was really trying his hardest. It looked instead as though he was using just enough power to maintain a stalemate with Cell.

The big revelation happened a minute later when Piccolo realized the reason why Goku had insisted on fighting Cell first. The champion of Earth had done so in order to allow his son to see how Cell fought from a spectator's point of view. By doing this, the young half-Saiyan would have all the knowledge he'd need to tear Cell apart when his hidden power kicked in. It was brilliant! Even if Goku had slightly misjudged his son, the hero of Earth had set up the perfect scenario to bring about the end of Gero's most evil creation.

For a time Cell tried a multitude of different attacks, but when they failed to do anything respectable, the two warriors broke off for a moment. He doubted it was for a breather given the lack of exertion he could see on Gohan's face, so that meant that Cell was trying to figure out a way to turn things around. His sensei only gave the foul felon a few minutes before once more going on the offensive. Fists collided and blasts tore up the environment but no one got hurt, nor did it change things because Cell was still failing while Gohan continued to maintain his position of dominance. It was infuriating Gero's masterpiece and, at the rate things were going, it would only be a matter of time before Cell again lost his cool.

Reaching his father and handing him a Senzu bean, he had to wonder of the man could see the similarities between what was happening now and his fight with semi-perfect Cell. Probably, but only for a moment since that would be all his father's pride and anger forced the memories aside.

It was then that he saw the first signs of Cell losing his self-control when, with a roar of anger, the creature unleashed a massive surge of ki that obliterated a mountain while raising his energy level a bit. As with all of his attempts since he started fighting Gohan directly, Cell's move failed in its entirety. When some of the anger left the abomination's face, he worried for a moment that the monster had some sort of ace up his sleeve. The card was revealed when Cell claimed that he wasn't fighting at his full strength and this caused all to worry because, if the monster had been powerful enough to defeat Goku at an unknown level below maximum, then his full strength would be truly terrible to behold. He didn't want to believe it but, as the power within Gero's creation grew, he had to accept it as the horrible truth. By the time that Cell had finished powering up to his maximum, the feeling of certain victory for Gohan had diminished somewhat and he now wondered if the planet could survive a clash between the two of them.

Then, with more speed than he could follow, Cell managed to land a devastatingly powerful right hook to Gohan's jaw that made many, including himself, stagger mentally at the difference from the artificial beings earlier performance. Nevertheless it might as well have been a pillow that Cell used because, while the punch did succeed in moving Gohan, that was all it did. When the monster tried for a second one, though the son of Goku beat him to the punch, literally, by burying his left fist in Cell's gut, causing the creation to gape in shock. Backing away slowly while holding his arms to the location where the punch hit, Cell was beside himself with shock. It must have been completely inconceivable to the killing machine that one punch could do so much damage to him. Yet, when Gero's warrior tried again to strike his foe, all he got for his effort was an uppercut that flipped him over and forced him to land on his hands and knees.

When Cell tried to get to his feet, it became obvious that he had suffered some serious damage as his movements were shaky and the villain visibly had to compensate numerous times. Coughing up blood, Cell eventually managed to stay on his feet but no one could deny that the not-so-Perfect Being was at a serious disadvantage.

With a mixture of feelings, though, he watched as the fusion of DNA-turned-warrior continued to try and overpower Gohan to no avail. No matter how many times Cell attacked, the blows were blocked with ease by the supreme Super Saiyan on the scene and, when the roles changed, the monster was shown time and again the difference in power between the two of them. Even when the abomination used two Destructo Discs at the same time, it proved useless as Gohan was able to keep the deadly implements at bay with his energy, then disperse them at the same time. Next came an overpowered version of Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon but that was swatted aside like it was something a newbie had just learned to do. Each attack that followed was a page out of history but none proved to be any more effective than the one that came before.

Eventually the reality of this must have gotten through to the killing machine because Cell took to the air as though to flee. However, as the monster stopped high in the sky, it was revealed that something entirely different would now happen.

"KA…ME…HA…" Yelled Cell at such a volume that no one would have any trouble hearing it.

Instantly he knew what was about to happen: Cell was putting the lion's share of his power into one massive Kamehameha blast. No doubt the villain thought that firing from his current position would force Gohan to take the hit or risk the Earth being destroyed.

"…ME… LET'S SEE YOU STOP THIS! BLOCK IT OR NOT, THE EXPLOSION WILL STILL DESTROY THE EARTH AND **YOU** ALONG WITH IT!" Cell yelled, sounding like he thought that he'd finally found a way to win. "HHHAAAA!"

With a blast of blue light that nearly covered the entire sky the technique was released and all seemed lost but then hope appeared shining brighter than ever. Firing a Kamehameha of his own, Gohan managed to force Cell's attack back into the sky, right at the foul being. As the distance closed between Gero's creation and the rising beam of energy, it almost looked as though Gohan's attack was devouring the energy of Cell's attack in order to make itself stronger. He couldn't really tell for sure because, with the force of his sensei's counterattack, even the most powerful Z warrior quickly found themselves on their backs with debris quickly covering them. Things settled down a couple of minutes later and, when they were all back on their feet, he truly thought it was all over with. There was no way that Cell had evaded that attack and surviving it wasn't even a remote possibility in his mind. Krillin shared his opinion on the matter but neither Piccolo nor Goku believed Cell was gone. Reaching out with his ability to sense the ki of others, he learned that they were right. Gero's diabolical creation might have taken a big hit but he was very much alive.

_DAMMIT! Just what does it take to kill that thing! _He thought angrily as he looked up at the damaged but still living form of Cell.

_**Xander's POV**_

_Payback's a bitch, ain't it? _He thought as he looked up at the mangled form hanging in the air. _Well, get used to it, 'cause there's more coming your way._

From the moment that Gohan had achieved this new level of power, he'd known that it was pretty much all over for Cell. The level of ki he could sense from the young half-Saiyan was ridiculous but it made him smile because he believed that the odds of Gero's creation matching it were slim. As the minutes had passed, his feral glee had only grown as Gohan managed to humiliate his foe at every turn while making Cell look like a rank amateur by comparison. This was all being stored away as one of his happy places when times got hard for him and he had no doubt that every time he thought of the freak getting his ass handed to him, it'd bring a smile to his face.

"Hey! What's wrong? What's he waiting for?" Tien asked, sounding increasingly worried.

For a moment he wondered what he was so upset about but Piccolo filled in that blank for him.

"If Gohan doesn't finish him off now, Cell will regenerate!" Piccolo exclaimed as he caught on to his ally's train of thought. "Remember he has my cells inside of him!"

"Gohan! You have to take Cell down now before he can regenerate!" Goku yelled to his son in an effort to spur him into action.

"Take him down now?" Gohan yelled back as a question before thinking it over for a second. "Nah, I think I'm going to make him suffer for a bit longer."

It was then that he realized that even if the kid was only half-Saiyan it looked like the preteen had inherited the one trait that all of his father's species had and that was the tendency to get cocky after a major power increase. Normally he'd be with Goku and the others trying to get Gohan to finish Cell off quickly but, after all that had happened, all the people that bastard had killed, he found himself siding with his nephew. Watching Cell get taken apart piece by piece was wonderful and, if the one doing it wanted to drag things out a bit more, then he would watch happily from the sidelines. As he watched his hated foe regenerate and then pump up even more, he couldn't help but chuckle as the fool made the same mistake Trunks had all those days ago. The idiot had increased his size and maybe his strength but this would only slow him down and, if he couldn't keep up with Gohan before, he would be a turtle before the young hero now. This was quickly proven when, despite putting a great deal of power behind each blow, none of them even came close to hitting their target. It was like Cell was on slow motion while Gohan was moving at fast forward speed, so it came as no surprise when the Saiyan-Human hybrid delivered a kick to the fiend's jaw with little effort.

While the blow didn't knock the monster off of his feet, it did ruin the creature's pretty boy looks and, when it was followed up a ki-aided kick to the stomach, it looked as though Cell would toss his cookies at any moment. Indeed, as the seconds passed, the winged warrior showed ever increasing signs that he was going to regurgitate something in the next few minutes. The villain seemed to be fighting against it, though, but he just wrote it off as a desire not to humiliate himself in front of his enemies. Stretching out with his senses, he was elated to find that it was going to be so much more than just Cell puking. The killer's ki level was dropping rapidly and this led him to believe that whatever Gohan's last attack had done, it had seriously messed up the insides of the maniacal monstrosity.

What happened next, though, was something he never could have predicted in a million years.

With one final failed effort, Cell threw up, expelling something from his body that was quite large but unidentifiable until it hit the ground, causing most of the goo to fall to the sides.

"18?"

His mind almost lost all coherency as he tried to understand what had just happened. When the beautiful blonde had been absorbed by Cell, he'd presumed that her form had been broken down and then incorporated into the monster's own form. Never once did he think that she'd still be in one piece! Almost desperately he reached out with his ki senses to see if she was alive but, sadly, it looked like just as before she was completely invisible to warriors with this ability. Nevertheless, hope sparked into existence in his heart and, the more he looked at her wonderful form, the stronger it became until he became certain that he'd been granted a second chance.

It was because of this conclusion that he did not sit still when he watched the bastard shakily reach down in an effort to placed Android 18 back within his body.

"Keep your meathooks off of her!" He yelled before using his modified Instant Transmission technique to cross the distance.

Putting all the power he could muster into a single kick, he slammed his right leg into Cell's face and, miraculously, it had the desired effect. The asshole's grip on 18 was lost and the freak fell backwards. Not bothering to wonder how his blow had been so effective, he quickly scooped up the focus of his thoughts and then teleported back to where the rest of the Z warriors stood. As he placed her tenderly on the ground, he could both feel as well as see Cell revert to his semi-perfect form and settle at a power level consistent with that form. Not thinking clearly at all, Cell once more tried to kill Gohan but it was beyond pathetic. As the boy continued to counterattack every single one of Cell's attacks with a devastating one of his own, the monster's fear increased. However it was when this fear appeared to reach its peak that Gero's creation began to change in a way that no one had predicted he would. With a brief surge of ki, Cell began to expand as though he were some sort of balloon, causing limbs and torso to expand in a most comical fashion.

What Cell revealed next, though, was anything but comical: he was going to blow himself up and take everything with him when he went!

_Should've seen this coming!_ He thought angrily as his mind raced to figure out what to do. _It's typical villain methodology! If they can't have it, no one can!_

However, when a one minute countdown was announced, he realized that there was very little he could do in that amount of time. He wasn't a brilliant tactical genius and the pressure he was now under wasn't helping his thinking processes one little bit. Nevertheless, he continued to try because it was not in his nature to give up even in the face of impossible odds. In the end it was Goku who seemed to come up with a plan as he turned to look at them with an odd smile on his face. Putting his own planning activities on hold, he tried to guess at what his half-brother was going to do but nothing really seemed to fit. Hitting Cell or blasting him with ki would likely just trigger early detonation while speaking with the guy would be like talking to a brick wall for all the good it would do.

"Listen. There's not much time left and I can only think of one way to save the Earth," Goku said, sounding like a man resigned to a single course of action. "Goodbye, my friends. Goodbye, brother."

It all clicked in that one instant what Goku intended to do and, with his very soul rejecting that course of action, he attempted to move and stop his idiot half-brother from carrying out what was to be a suicide mission. Unfortunately Instant Transmission was just that and before he could even move a single foot forward the champion of Earth vanished only to reappear right in front of Cell.

_Well two can play at that game!_ He thought as he reached out with his mind to lock onto Goku's ki signature.

Before he could actually execute the technique, though, a hand came down on his shoulder, breaking his concentration. Turning to see who it was, he was only half surprised to find out it was Piccolo.

"Let go, Piccolo! I have to stop him!" he growled as he tried to dislodge the restraining arm. "If using the Instant Transmission is the only way to save the Earth then I should do it!"

"Do you even know where you'd teleport yourself and Cell to?" Piccolo asked with a look that demanded he actually think about it.

The more he did think about it, though, the more he realized that he didn't know where he'd take Cell with the technique. While he might be able to use the move to pop around the battlefield without much thinking, he had little to no experience travelling extra-long distances with it. Even in space, when he'd been training with Vegeta, he'd never strayed far from the spaceship and the few times he had, he'd always stuck to the same planet it was on. To take Cell far enough away to save the Earth, he'd need to go to a different planet, probably someplace outside the solar system, and that would require that he stretch his ki senses like never before. That would chew up valuable seconds, seconds they didn't have, and so, with great reluctance, he gave up on trying to stop Goku from taking Cell away. Like it or not, it was the best course of action and, if he had to, he'd ask Dende for New Namek's location so he could use their dragonballs to bring Goku back.

"Fine." Was all he said to the Namek as he took in the scene before him.

He was only able to witness the parting words a father had for his son before the greatest hero this world had ever known vanished and took the threat to Earth with him. Clenching his fists in fury at what had happened, he had to wonder if there was anything he could have done differently to make things turn out better. However, no matter how many times he went over the facts, he realized that the only person who could have made this turn out better was Gohan. If the most powerful Saiyan on Earth had just finished off Cell when he'd had the chance, Goku would still be alive and everything would be right with the world. He wanted to yell at the kid, he wanted to vent his rage, but his didn't because he knew that right now Gohan was going through more than enough hell to serve as punishment for his time of arrogance.

Turning away from his nephew as Krillin went to comfort the kid, he looked to where he'd put down Android 18 and decided with everything done it'd probably be a good idea to get her out of here before one of the others got it into their heads to destroy her. Walking over to her, he wondered if she'd suffered any sort of lingering damage as a result of being merged with Cell. Did she need a doctor? Should he take her to Bulma? He didn't know and decided that he'd just get her out of there first and worry about the next step once the two of them were safely away.

Once he reached her side he bent down and gently picked her up in his arms. He knew that the others were looking at him strangely, no doubt wondering what he planned to do, but he decided that the best course of action was to remain silent on that matter. Let them think up whatever they wanted because it would probably cause less trouble then the truth.

"Put that android down, Xander!" Growled Vegeta, who looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. "In case you've forgotten, it's the enemy. It needs to be destroyed now!"

"No," was all he said while glaring at arrogant prick.

"No! What do you mean 'no'!" Vegeta asked in shock at the response. "I gave you a direct order! As your prince, you're obligated to obey me!"

He was about to tell his relation that he could take his 'direct order' and shove it up his ass when the light breeze that had been blowing suddenly multiplied in strength. It got so bad that there was no way that it could be natural and that was when he felt a large power appear that only moments ago he'd thought had destroyed itself. Turning his head towards the source of the wind, he watched as a single beam of light shot out from the center of the disturbance faster than he could reliably follow. However there was no missing the moment when a fist-sized hole suddenly appeared in Trunks' chest less than a second before the young man was flung into the air by the attack. Watching this all happen, he couldn't help but feel a bit of fear in his heart since this one act signified that the nightmare he had been so thankful to see over had returned more evil than ever.

"Well it looks as though my aim is as good as ever!" Cell bragged as the smoke cleared, revealing his once more perfect form.

This was bad enough but the thing that made it even worse was the fact that while physically the monster didn't look all that different from his usual perfect form, the bastard had arcs of electricity bouncing around his ki field, just like Gohan's new transformation had done to his ki field. Stretching out with his ki senses to examine the new Cell in greater detail, he recoiled within seconds after finding out that the electricity was no just for show. The amalgamation of genetic material had undergone a massive power increase and, no matter how he tried, he couldn't figure out if Gohan still held the advantage or if he'd lost it to Cell. Whatever the case, he had a feeling the fight for the planet Earth would depend on what happened in the next few minutes.

Of course Cell just **HAD** to do a monologue about how he'd survived his own self-destruction but it had been somewhat informative. They'd all learned about how Cell's regeneration extended downwards to each individual cell and that, so long as a single one of them survived, he could come back. That meant that in order to beat the monster, he'd need to be completely vaporized down to the tiniest piece of organic material in order to stay dead, which meant that Gohan would have to hit him with a ki blast to end all ki blasts but, thankfully, it looked like Cell was cocky enough to take any such attack head on. All that was needed would be the proper set up.

As he watched Gohan's ki field reappear, complete with crackling electricity along the edges, he prepared to do his part so that nephew would have the perfect opportunity. It would take perfect timing but, as he set Android 18 back on the ground, he felt confident that he would know instinctively when the right moment to strike would be. However, just as he thought the battle between the young hybrid and the maniacal monster would resume, Vegeta let out a deafening bellow of rage. Before anyone could ask the idiot what he thought he was doing, the prick charged forward, turning into a Super Saiyan as he went, before firing off a ki blast that had a great deal of energy in it. When it hit Cell it detonated, sending out a force wave that knocked everything without sufficient strength into the air while forcing those with power to draw on it in order to stay where they were. He waited for the debris to settle down before reprimanding his idiot half-brother for doing something so reckless but it turned out that big blast was just an opener for a multitude of further blasts. Over and over again Vegeta bombarded the spot where Cell was last known to be until dust, debris as well as dirt filled the air for hundreds of yards. No doubt the fool wanted to make sure that regeneration would not be possible for the one that had mortally wounded his son.

The fool! Didn't he realize that if Goku, someone who was stronger than him, couldn't defeat Cell in his perfect form, then he stood no chance in hell of beating this new Cell?

His point was driven home when Gero's foul creation emerged from the dust cloud completely unscathed to deliver a devastating chop to the arrogant prince. Falling to the ground completely limp and most likely temporarily paralyzed, he couldn't help but grunt in contempt at his sibling. Just as was always the case when the idiot thought more of himself then there really was, Vegeta had gotten his ass kicked and was now most likely going to get killed as well. It was something he didn't much mind since the jackass had pretty much killed whatever feelings of familial affection there might have been.

It was too bad that Gohan thought differently as he watched the half-Saiyan streak through the air to intercept the killing energy blast that Cell had fired off to kill Vegeta. It was too close to call as far as whether or not the kid would make it and, when the blast detonated, no one could see what had happened and who'd been harmed. Afterwards though it was all too easy to see a seriously hurt hybrid laying on top of Vegeta as though still shielding him from any further attacks. The warrior who, prior to Cell's self-detonation, had complete control over the fight now looked to have one useless arm as well a multitude of wounds all over his body. In every way that he could measure, it looked as though Gohan's strength had been cut in half and that meant the Earth's fate was pretty much certain.

They were all going to die and it was all **VEGETA'S** fault!

_That does it! If some sort of miracle happens and we all live through this, I'm going to do whatever it takes so that jackass can't mess things up like this __**ever**__ again!_ He thought angrily as he listened to Cell gloat over the state of the only person who might have stood a chance at beating him.

For now, though, he had to wonder what he could do and what would have something resembling an effect on the genetic abomination. Unfortunately the most obvious way to help wasn't available since all of the Senzu beans had already been used up to restore the Z warriors after their encounter with the Cell Juniors. Sure, with the Instant Transmission technique he could probably make it to Korrin's place but it was unlikely that the talking cat had any more to give. He'd heard many a time from Goku about how hard it was for the cat to grow them and how the feline always gave all he could spare when trouble like this cropped up. The likelihood that one more existed to be used was unlikely, especially considering the fact that some that had been in the pouch had been pretty tiny when compared to the others.

Things got worse, though, when Cell took on a position that made it clear he planned on using the Kamehameha to finish off the son of the warrior who'd made that move his trademark.

As much as he tried to think of a way to give hope to all, he kept bumping up against the same problem: power. As powerful as some of the present fighters were, none of them could even approach the power Gohan possessed and so it looked like he'd get to see the legendary Snake Way sooner rather than later. Seeing Cell's strength continue to climb as he prepared to fire off his blast, he began to doubt that even a fully healed Gohan would prove strong enough to match it. Thus he was confronted with the future of being destroyed but, as he looked down at Android 18, he took some comfort in the fact that at least he'd have some company in the afterlife.

Then something strange happened: Gohan began to talk as though there was someone out there with him aside from Cell or Vegeta.

His first inclination was to believe that the situation had finally snapped the young man's mind but then he remembered his experiences in Sunnydale. Just because no one else could see anything didn't necessarily mean that Gohan wasn't really speaking with someone, be they living or dead. Whatever the case might be, he couldn't argue with the results since it caused a turnaround in the kid's mindset, taking it from bitter acceptance to determined defiance. Watching as Gohan began to gather all of his remaining strength and then prepare to fire his own Kamehameha, he prayed that, just like Goku, his nephew would beat the odds and save the Earth. Then, as if in response to some signal that only Cell and Gohan could hear, the ridiculously strong energy blasts were fired at each. Realizing that he was a little too close to the action, he quickly took to the air to put some safety distance between the blue beams that were going to have a head on collision sooner rather than later.

Going as fast as he could, he was just barely quick enough to escape the brunt of the shockwave caused by the collision between the two opposing forces. It wasn't enough to knock anyone from the sky but it was definitely strong enough to give him a pretty good idea of the power being brought into play by Gohan and Cell. Looking back, he could see that at first an equilibrium of sorts between the two but soon, little by little, Cell began to overpower his nephew's blast. Like a real trooper, though, the kid refused to give up and drawing on energy from **somewhere** the little guy managed to restore the balance between the two blasts. For a time he thought that maybe the two would wind up exhausting one another but then, like the true destroyer he was, Cell once more began to push his Kamehameha closer to Gohan. With his ki senses he could feel his nephew straining to push back the blast threatening to take his life while Cell just seemed to get more powerful with every second.

"Hold on, Gohan! I'm coming!" Piccolo suddenly yelled before firing up his ki field and flying off to where the fate of the Earth would be decided.

Seeing the Namek take up a firing position above Cell, he caught a glimmer of the plan the crafty warrior was operating under. No matter how arrogant the monster might be, combatting Gohan's energy blast must require a lot of focus and, if that concentration could be shattered, it just might provide Goku's son the opening he needed. However it looked like Piccolo was coming up short because, even with a potent Masenko blast to the back, Cell was still dominating the contest of power with Gohan. The abomination then, using only his energy, knocked the Namek from the sky as though he was a bothersome fly.

"That idiot! What made him think he could save Gohan all by himself?" Krillin exclaimed, making it clear what he thought of the whole scene.

"He didn't think he could but he tried anyway." Tien said as a determined look took form on his face. "Can't say I blame him for wanting to do something rather than just stand here."

Feeling the three eyed guy's ki begin to rise, he knew that Tien was planning on doing the exact same thing, no matter how it turned out. Seeing events unfold before him he felt his own desire to go down fighting take hold and, with one final look down at Android 18's unconscious form, he made his choice.

"Then I guess we should do something like follow Piccolo's lead," he said as he gently lay the blonde in his arms down on the ground. "Anything's better than just waiting to die."

"Got that right." Tien said as his ki field came into existence.

"Count me in!" Yamcha declared as his power began to build.

"Are you guy's nuts!" Krillin exclaimed with complete disbelief.

"Maybe. You gotta be a little crazy to do what we do," he said as he brought his Super Saiyan power to the surface. "Sane people generally don't put their lives on the line against planet killer monsters. So giving the Big Bad one last blast of defiance really isn't that weird for us. Let's go!"

With that he took to the air, Yamcha and Tien following behind him, setting course for a spot behind Cell from where they would unleash their contribution to the fight. He had to grin a bit when he sensed Krillin flying to catch up with the rest of them. The little guy might not have been a big fan of the plan but he wasn't the sort of person to leave his friends to face a threat alone.

_I have no idea whether or not we can make a difference for you, Gohan, h_e thought as he saw Piccolo preparing to fire a Special Beam Cannon, b_ut we're sure as hell going to try!_

_**Piccolo's POV**_

"SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!" He yelled as he pushed as much power into the attack as he could.

Not an easy thing to do when your body was still protesting Cell's attempt to brush him off with a decent amount of pain, but he refused to let his first and only student face the threat alone. Pushing aside the pain, he did everything he could to not only keep the strength of the ki blast where it was but even try to increase it when he could. It didn't look like it'd be enough though as Cell was barely paying him any attention but, when he saw four forms drop from the sky, he realized that he'd started an encouraging trend.

"TRI-BEAM HHAAA!" Yelled Tien as he fired off his strongest attack from the right of Cell.

"HHAAA!" Came the declarations of defiance from Yamcha and Krillin from the left of Cell, causing the monster to be caught in a crossfire.

"MASENKO-HHAAA!" Came Xander's voice from above as he fired his ki attack right at Cell's head.

"Will you fools stop **interfering!**" Cell yelled, turning his head towards them slightly. "If you're in such a hurry to die, all you had to do was **ASK!**"

With more power than it had before, Gero's foul creation knocked all of them to the ground in various stages of pain, the energy playing havoc with their bodies. He even saw Xander fall but it looked like a Saiyan of his strength level was having an easier time dealing with the deadly energy then the rest of them. Forcing himself to his hands and knees, he found his strength waning and wondered if it would truly be worth it to continue with this half-assed strategy of his. It had been thrown together amidst a storm of defiance and rage so it wasn't his finest piece of work, but at the same time it'd felt so right. Reminded of the birth of his plan, he felt his determination regain its strength and then some.

"No! I won't let Gohan face this all alone!" he declared with conviction as he forced himself to his feet. "Friends don't do that!"

Hearing Krillin groan in pain, he turned his head and saw the bald human doing the same thing as him, albeit with a cynical smile on his face.

"Don't know why I'm bothering to get up. It'd be much easier just to keel over." Krillin said, finally managing to stand up. "Guess Goku's rubbed off on me a bit and someday I'm going to get even with him for that."

"I know what you mean. Back home, someone I hated called me a White Knight as an insult." Xander said as he shrugged off the last of his pain. "Too bad he hit mark dead on. What sort of White Knight would I be if I didn't fight evil to the bitter end? **KA-ME-HA-ME-HHAAA!**"

With those words the entire group renewed their efforts, pouring every scrap of ki into their assaults in an effort to shatter Cell's concentration, thus giving Gohan the chance to strike. For a time it looked like their combined effort was having an effect since the anger in Cell's words implied as much, but then, like both times prior, the monster flung them back just by raising his power level. He tried, gave it everything he had, but in the end he wound up eating dirt just like before, his body taking the opportunity to pounce on him with pain. This time, though, he rolled with the force and bounced back onto his feet, even though it was touch and go as to whether or not he'd stay on them. Firing off another continuous ki blast, with Krillin and Xander joining him, they waited to see whether their bravery would be rewarded.

It wasn't.

With a roar of rage Cell multiplied the strength of the ki his sent their way by four and, while their determination allowed them to withstand it for a while, eventually they were tossed into the air like leaves in a hurricane. When they finally came down, he knew that he'd reached his true limit. His entire body screamed out with pain and consciousness was something that he was having some difficulty holding onto. Event Xander, who was probably even stronger than he was, could only get onto his hands and knees because of the damage done to his body.

"I'm sorry, G-Gohan." He said with his remaining strength. "I did my best."

"We all did Piccolo… we all did." Xander said with his hope reduced to a flickering candle.

Waiting for the end to come, he almost didn't sense what he did but, when he looked up into the air, he saw something quite unexpected. Floating high in the air was none other than Vegeta in his Super Saiyan form, a golden ki field flaring around him. He had no time to wonder what the Vegetable was up to but, fortunately, he didn't have to as the man who'd looked at the rest of them with such contempt fired off a sphere of ki at Cell. While small in size, he could feel the power within it and, when it struck Cell, it proved capable of breaking the monster's stance. The elation he felt at this was only tempered by the realization that, assuming the best case scenario happened, the arrogant asshole would undoubtedly rub this moment in their faces for sure.

Hearing Gohan scream with power and watching as his first student's blast finally overcame Cell's, he made a secret mental note to be elsewhere when the self-centered Saiyan began gloating about how he played a critical role in defeating Cell.

Pushing himself into the air and out of the way of the blast, he evaded vaporization by an inch but, then again, so did the others. Watching as Gohan lifted off into the air a bit in order to divert his blast through Cell and then out into outer space, he kept a sharp ki sense open just in case. If it was true that the monster could regenerate so long as a single microscopic piece of him remained intact, then they couldn't afford to let history repeat itself. As the minutes passed and Gohan's Kamehameha cut out he looked with his eyes all over the area where Cell last was looking for anything that resembled a still-living piece of the fiend. It was only as exhaustion caused his first student to fall to the ground that he was satisfied that they'd finally seen the last of the homicidal horror.

Flying over to the hero of the day, he heard the others remark about how they could barely believe that it was finally over. Not that he could blame them considering how many times he'd thought Cell dead only for the villain to pop up again as strong as ever. Still, with the threat gone, it was time for some damage control, starting with making sure Gohan was alright. The kid had used up a lot of his energy and, since life energy played a role in the body healing itself, it was best to make sure the little warrior was alright.

He couldn't help but draw comparisons between the boy lying on the ground before him and Goku because of the whole laughing while battered on the ground thing was just what his former nemesis had done on previous occasions. Shaking off the bit of nostalgia, he looked over his former student with an evaluating eye and found, much to his relief, that aside from an understandable bit of exhaustion, a possibly broken arm and some scrapes, there was nothing to worry about.

"So are you going to lay there all day, Gohan, or what?" Asked Xander with his usual smile. "It's not very heroic of you to be all lazy after a win like this."

Gohan just laughed with fatigue at the question, knowing that it was just his uncle's way of celebrating victory.

"Yeah, well, you can't expect him to go meet his adoring fans looking like this." Krillin said with relief and humor. "Don't worry, Gohan. We'll get you to Dende and he'll fix you right up!"

"Got that right! Until then, I'll get you there." Yamcha said as he walked over and picked Gohan up. "Air Yamcha is taking off!"

With that one of the founding members of Goku's group took to the air, heading for Kami's Lookout where Dende would be waiting for them. Without a word he took to the air as well with Krillin while Tien went to pick up Trunks so the boy from the future could be healed as well. It was only when he'd reached the halfway point to his usual cruising altitude that he noticed Xander had gone off for where he'd left Android 18. While he didn't think that the others had noticed it at the time, he'd heard the emotion in the young man's voice when Cell had spat out the female android. It wasn't the voice of surprise, or anger, but something a great deal more difficult to understand.

He'd bet his turban that what he'd heard from the half-brother of Goku was affection and, considering it was directed to a being that had treated the world like her playground, it raised some unusual questions. Nevertheless, he decided that until the blonde did something wrong, he wouldn't cause any trouble for Xander by confronting him about his choice of girlfriends. During their training time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he'd heard a few stories about the guy's home town and the wierdness that happened there. He was also able to deduce, based on what wasn't said, that Xander tended to attract unusual women while repelling the normal ones. That sort of track record pretty much made Android 18 par for the course for the young warrior.

_Not that I understand male-female relationships in general all that well. _He thought as he turned away from Goku's half-brother. _Until they make it otherwise, I'm considering it none of my business._

With that final thought he resumed his journey to Kami's lookout where the wounded would be treated and the dragonballs would be used to undo the damage done to the Earth along with its inhabitants.

_**Android 18's POV, Kami's Lookout**_

It was with a start that she woke up and, while the first thing she saw was Xander looking down at her, what she saw and heard afterwards had her instinctively getting to her feet.

What she saw was Piccolo, some kid Namek and Krillin.

What she heard was, "Xander! Get away from that android! She'll punch a hole through your chest!"

Thanks to her systems being back up and running, she was instantly able to identify the voice as belonging to that idiot Yamcha, so she didn't pay his words any mind and neither did Xander. Looking about the strange place she'd found herself in, she tried to make sense of the confusion she was feeling at the moment. The last thing she remembered was being served up to Cell on a silver platter by Vegeta and then that horrible tail coming down at her. As hard as she tried, nothing more came to her but, since she was feeling okay and Cell was nowhere to be seen, she decided to focus on the here and now. The here and now, though, was surrounded by Goku's allies while only having one potential ally in the form of Xander, but she couldn't be sure he'd help her if the rest ganged up on her. Sure, he might have been willing to help her and be nice to her when it was only the two of them for miles, but here, with all his friends watching, he might very well withdraw his support. After all, they'd only been together for a couple of hours running from Cell and he'd been with his friends for years. It wouldn't be logical of him to risk losing them just to stand by someone he barely knew.

"Glad to see you didn't catch anything bad from Cell," Xander said casually and without a hint of censorship. "Nothing to worry about, right, Dende?"

"Not that I could tell, but that's only for the biological parts of her," replied the little Namek with a soft, polite voice. "You'd probably have to ask Bulma to look at her machine parts to see if they're working alright now."

"That's not going to happen," she said, firmly against the idea of letting some egghead open her up again, even for a check-up.

"Well you know your body better than me, so if you think your fine then that's good enough for me." Xander said, taking her side on the matter.

"Yeah, well, you better watch yourself lady, 'cause if you step out of line, Gohan will blast you into dust just like he did Cell!" Yamcha yelled from his position almost on the other side of the platform.

"Gohan… beat Cell?" she asked, almost unable to believe the kid she remembered had done such a thing.

"Yep! The kid's a real chip off the old block!" Xander replied with a smile. "It was a little close but Cell's vapor and we're not."

Looking over at the son of Goku, it seemed almost too much to believe that someone so young had done what people older than him could not. Still, her former travelling companion had never outright lied to her when she'd asked him a question, so she'd have to take him at his word. Sure, he'd refused to answer some questions and been a bit vague with some of his answers, but her sensors had never detected anything that was a complete lie.

While a large part of her was relieved that Cell was no longer around to eat her, that didn't mean she was completely in the clear. Before the bug man had even showed up, the majority of the people she could see standing around her had been on a mission to destroy her and Android 17. She could not entirely rule out that they might very well resume that mission now that Cell was no longer around to be the focus of their attention. With that in mind, she looked about the area and began to formulate an escape strategy based on what her sensors were telling her.

"Hey! Take it easy." Xander said, somehow picking up on what she was thinking. "No one here's going to hurt you. I promise."

With those words she watched with surprise as he took up a supportive position next to her while looking at the rest of Goku's friends in a way that warned them against trying anything. She was at a loss for words at this move because she'd never expected him to so openly make his stance regarding her known. Some of the dimmer ones, like Yamcha, didn't look like they realized the deeper meaning of the act but she could tell the Namek, Piccolo, knew the truth.

"Hey! You like Android 18 don't you, Uncle Xander?" Gohan asked, somehow putting the pieces together and voicing his conclusion for all to hear.

"WHAT!" exclaimed Yamcha in disbelief.

"You know she's an android, don't you, Xander?" Tien asked, sounding like he was hoping that it was all just some big joke.

"Yeah, well, I've always had a thing for strong women, so why stop now?" Xander said, looking a bit uncomfortable at the attention he was receiving. "Besides, she's hot so who cares if she'll set off metal detectors everywhere we go?"

She felt… touched that the Saiyan that had she'd developed a fondness for was being honest as opposed to trying to disguise his feelings with half-baked lies. After having her trust betrayed by so many, the only person she'd ever been able to find herself believing in had been 17 and even then she'd kept one eye on her brother. Due to this, she'd been expecting Xander to do the same since not enough time had passed for him to form a bond strong enough to justify turning against his allies. However he wasn't and she appreciated it greatly.

Looking over at the rest of those present, though, she could tell that they still saw her as an enemy or, at the very least, didn't think that it was acceptable that one of their friends had developed feelings for her. Had Xander behaved with less certainty towards his feelings for her, she might have reacted to this by settling back into her usual tough girl attitude before flying off to some place more welcoming. However, with his support, she felt like she could withstand their looks of judgment and so she simply glared at them, as if daring them to say more or to try something with her.

"Enough of this. We've got more important things to deal with," Piccolo said, breaking into the conversation in his usual way. "We need to summon the Eternal Dragon so we can undo all the damage Cell's done."

No one spoke out against this but she herself was a bit confused. The files she had on Goku and his allies did make reference to seven orange spheres called 'dragonballs' that had been sought after by many but nothing really on what they could do beyond rumors. With a bit of curiosity she watched as some fat, pointy-eared guy brought out a cushion with seven orange spheres on it that seemed to pulse like a heart beating. She tried to scan them to learn more but the readings she got were chaotic and random, making it difficult to come to any conclusions about the items. As they were placed on the ground in the middle of the platform, she waited to see if anyone would explain what they were supposed to do but no one did anything of the sort. Instead the little Namek, Dende, stood over them and, after a moment of contemplation, held his open hands over the seven spheres.

"Eternal dragon, by your name I summon you forth. Shenron!" Dende said, as though chanting some sort of magic spell.

Then with only a little warning a pillar of golden energy erupted from the spheres, crisscrossing around the sky above them before finally taking on the form of an oriental dragon of incredible size and length. Never in her life and most definitely not in any of her files had she ever seen anything like it! She wanted her sensors to tell her something she could understand about this creature so everything could make sense but, much like with the dragonballs themselves, what she was being told did not make any sense.

"CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY AS YOU SPEAK." Spoke the dragon in a booming otherworldly voice. "I WILL MAKE TWO OF YOUR WISHES COME TRUE."

"Oh wow! It worked. Dende made it so that Earth's dragonballs could grant two wishes instead of just one." Gohan said in amazement at the giant dragon overhead.

"Shenron! Please revive all those on Earth who were killed by Cell!" Yelled Yamcha, making the first of the two wishes.

"YOUR WISH WILL BE GRANTED." Said Shenron and then its eyes glowed with an unearthly crimson light.

Waiting to see if something more impressive would happen, she found herself disappointed when nothing did. She had expected something of a fancy lightshow or maybe some weird symbols to glow in the air, but she guessed that was hoping for a bit much. She was about to call the dragon a big phony when Trunks, the guy who'd been killed by Cell, suddenly sat up as though he'd never been hit by the blast. It was incredible! Even the Senzu beans that Gero had given her files on didn't have the power to bring someone back to life and yet this Eternal Dragon had done so with little effort. When Trunks turned to face the rest of the group, she could see the hole in his armor but, instead of a gaping wound, there was unblemished flesh. It made the son of Vegeta look as though he'd just put on damage clothing and armor.

"Looks like I was right about the dragon. Since Dende based them off the old dragon, some of the old rules also got carried over," Piccolo said with some disappointment in his voice. "I don't sense Goku anywhere, so that must mean that the restriction of being unable to revive someone who's been brought back to life by the dragon before must be a part of this new dragon."

"WHAT IS YOUR SECOND WISH?" Asked Shenron, sounding a little impatient. "I AM WAITING FOR IT."

"Listen! Can't you use our whole second wish to revive Goku?" Yelled Yamcha, obviously not willing to give up on his friend just yet. "All of us really want him to come back!"

"HOW BADLY YOU WANT HIM BACK MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ME." Replied Shenron with indifference to the question. "GOKU HAS BEEN REVIVED BEFORE AND SO IT IS IMPOSSIBLE."

Naturally this led the group of fighters to begin debating various ways they could rescue their fearless leader but she had to wonder if they weren't all just acting like a bunch of children. All of them had been clinging to their leader's coat tails almost from the day they'd met him! When were they going to grow up, let go and learn to stand on their own? Probably not for a long time...

"Hey! What if we ask Porunga back on New Namek to bring Goku back?" Dende asked with hope on his little face.

"It could work. Since Porunga is the original Eternal Dragon, he can revive those that have died as often as he deems fit." Piccolo replied with optimism concerning this course of action.

"Then all we have to do is get ourselves to New Namek!" Krillin exclaimed, sounding enthusiastic about the solution.

"So we're all agreed then?" Ssked Yamcha as he looked at each person for confirmation with the exception of her.

_Hey! Don't I get a say in this?_ Came a voice in her head that she immediately knew was Goku's.

She instantly tried to trace the source of the signal since she was sure that the Saiyan was somehow transmitting his words directly into her systems but every system said that no transmissions were being directed at her. Looking around at the others, she could tell that they had heard their leader's voice as well and, since they were made of flesh and blood, it didn't make sense that they could hear a transmission in their head like she could. It didn't make any sense!

_Hi everybody! It's me! _Goku transmitted, sounding as happy and simpleminded as his files stated.

"Goku?" Krillin asked tentatively, as though he couldn't quite bring himself to believe he was actually talking to his friend.

_Yep it's me! King Kai's letting me talk to you all telepathically from Other World._ Goku explained, helping fill in a few blanks. _Listen… lately I've been thinking about why the Earth's been in danger so often and I've come to realize most of the guys who've come to cause trouble have been coming after me. Think about it: Freiza, Cell and the other androids. In the end I think it would be better for the Earth if I just stayed dead._

_As a Saiyan baby, I was sent to Earth to destroy everything on it and, in a way, I've been doing exactly that even though I've always tried to do the opposite._ Goku thought as he laid out his line of thinking. _So I really think it's for the best if I don't get revived. It won't be so bad here and King Kai says I can get some special treatment since I've saved the world so often. I'll be able to keep my body and there's lot of interesting people to meet. It'll be __**fun!**_

_I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I appreciate the thought you'll have to find something else to wish for._ Goku thought with a bit of momentary sadness. _Gohan's gotten so strong there's nothing left for me to teach him. I want all of you to take notes on everything you do from here on out because I want to hear all about it when we see each other again. Until then… goodbye._

It was a little weird standing amidst the rest of them after that as they mourned the loss of their hero but, at the same time, she could tell they weren't as mushy about it as she'd expected. She guessed that being able to say goodbye to Goku and knowing that he was alright took the edge off of the whole farewell thing.

_Whatever! It doesn't concern me._ She thought, brushing the moment aside.

"#AHEM# EXCUSE ME. YOU HAVE ONE WISH REMAINING. ONE WISH. MAKE IT." Bellowed Shenron, who this time definitely sounded impatient.

"Gosh! We were all set to use the second wish to go to New Namek but now we aren't." Gohan said, sounding at a loss as to what to do. "Does anyone have a good idea for a second wish?"

For a time everyone was silent but then Xander stepped away from the group.

"I have one but it's a bit private so I'm going to have to tell Shenron quietly." Xander said as he rose into the air heading for Shenron's head. "And don't you or Dende even think of listening in Piccolo!"

The older Name just 'hmphed' while the younger one look scandalized at the idea of him eavesdropping on someone else's private wish. Watching as her favorite Saiyan flew to the Eternal Dragon's head, she had to wonder what Xander had in mind and why he didn't want anyone else to know what it was. It didn't take long for the big goof to reach his destination and, upon arriving, she could see him whispering his wish to Shenron. It wasn't a long and complicated wish since it only took a minute to say, but what the big dragon said next left her wondering.

"THAT WISH CANNOT BE GRANTED." Said Shenron after some hesitation.

"Why the hell not!" yelled Xander, who looked angry at the dragon's response.

"HER POWER IS SUCH THAT IT IS BEYOND MY ABILITY TO REMOVE AND SHOULD I CHANGE HER, IT WOULD ALMOST CERTAINLY KILL HER." Shenron replied in his usual manner.

"Fine!" Xander said before taking on a thinking pose for a few minutes.

_What is he up to? Is he talking about me? _She thought as everyone looked on.

"Alright then how about if you do it this way!" Xander said loudly enough for her to hear him before returning to whispering to the Eternal Dragon.

This time it took a couple more minutes of whispering but eventually it came to an end.

"VERY WELL. IF WE DO AS YOU SUGGEST, THEN IT SHOULD WORK." Shenron said before the air around her seemed to grow heavier with power. "LET IT BE DONE."

With those words the dragon's eyes glowed red and a strange light seemed to envelope Xander but, as best, she could tell nothing more was happening. It was what happened next though that threw her for a loop, though, as all of a sudden her world lost all coherency and her body felt like it was changing at an alarming rate. She didn't know if she wanted to scream or throw up but, before she could make a decision, it was over. Almost immediately, though, she could feel a difference both within herself and in the world around her. Her senses had lost a lot of the definition that she'd gained as a result of Gero's merciless experiments and, when she tried to access the files she had or run a diagnostic, nothing happened. Well, not nothing, but certainly not what she'd become accustomed to since the last operation the old man had carried out on her. She could still recall things but it was more like she was remembering something rather than opening a file in her mindscape.

She didn't know what to make of it all!

"IT HAS BEEN DONE." Stated the Eternal Dragon, snapping her out of her introspection.

"Thanks, Big Guy! I appreciate it." Said Xander before turning around and beginning his descent to the platform below.

"YOU ARE WELCOME." Shenron said before a glow began to rise from the dragon. "I MUST GO NOW. FAREWELL."

With those words the large being turned into energy and then shattered as seven comets flew from where it had been and fell to the Earth below. With that the magic that had been in the air since the dragonballs had been brought forth vanished and the sky, which had once been as black as oil, returned to its normal blue shade. However she could care less about what color the sky was now because, at the moment, she had a more important matter that needed to be addressed.

"What the hell did you have that thing do to me!"

For a moment Xander didn't say anything and, judging from the way he was glancing at the others on the platform, he was unsure about answering her question in their presence.

"You can answer her question, Xander." Piccolo said in a way that was probably meant to be supportive. "I'll back you up if they give you any trouble."

Xander glared at the Namek for a moment before sighing in defeat.

"Well, the first wish I tried to make was to have Shenron turn you back into a human by removing all the gizmos and techno gear Gero put in you," Xander replied, finding it hard to look her in the eye. "I figured with all of that crap gone, you'd have a chance to have the sort of life you would've had if Gero hadn't gotten his dirty hands on you. Unfortunately, you heard what the Eternal Dragon said to that. So I thought it over a bit and came up with a bit of a workaround for the problem."

"What sort of workaround?" She asked as she processed the Saiyan's reply.

"Well since a human body can't handle the power you have, I asked the dragon to make a few… adjustments so that it could," Xander replied, looking like he expected her to hit him.

And she was tempted to do that but it could wait until she had all the answers.

"What sort of adjustments?"

"Well, I had it look at my body and find out what was it about a Saiyan body that allowed it to channel so much energy and not blow up." Xander replied with a bit more confidence in his voice. "Then I asked it to use what it learned and give you a human body with the same sort of properties so it wouldn't blow up. Shenron said it would work and, well, here we are!"

"Are you saying she's part Saiyan now?" Trunks who sounded like he didn't think she should be helped at all save into the nearest scrap heap, asked dubiously.

"No. I'm saying that she's now a human being with a body capable of channelling a great deal of ki energy and maybe the potential to grow even stronger with a bit of training." Xander replied, making it very clear that he didn't like the tone Vegeta's son was using.

"Are you crazy! We had a hard enough time dealing with her when she was just an android, but now you've given her a way to get stronger!" Trunks yelled, sounding like he thought Xander had lost his mind.

"Back off, Trunks! I know you've had a tough life fighting the androids of your timeline but this Android 18 isn't the same one that went psycho in your world." Xander growled, glaring at the purple-haired young man. "You need to differentiate the two **now**. Besides, this actually works for us as much as it will for her."

"What do you mean?" Gohan asked, sounding curious.

"Now that her power and body are completely organic, she'll get tired just like the rest of us do after a hard fight. She won't have limitless energy to draw on," Xander explained, trying to convince everyone present. "She also won't be able to double or triple her power just by flicking an earring or mentally typing in a command. She'll need to train just like the rest of us."

While a bit bothered by the fact that Xander had secondary motives for changing her, she could see that he'd only done so as a way of protecting her. She'd have to confirm it with him later but, if she was right, he'd worded his wish and his explanation in such a way so as to dispel any concerns his friends might have about her. By letting them know that she now had the same flaws and weaknesses as the rest of them, he'd made her less of a clear and present danger that needed to be destroyed and more of a potential one.

"Besides, thanks to the training most of us did in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, we're easily strong enough to stop her if she decides to go on killing spree." Xander pointed out, reminding the warriors of their own strength. "So really there's no need to blast her or anything, is there?"

This caused a round of looks between the various allies of Goku before everyone looked at Trunks, who looked like he was planning on being stubborn for a moment before suddenly giving in.

"Fine. You've made your point, Xander." Trunks said, sounding like he was reluctantly conceding the debate. "I just hope this doesn't come back to bite all of us in the ass."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, if it does take a turn for the worse, I'll probably be the first one to get fried." Xander said with his usual grin and humor.

Trunks allowed a small grin to surface on his face and this more than anything else let her know he was throwing away the idea of blowing her up.

She, however, was not about to let what Xander'd done slide by quite so easily.

Walking right up to him until they were about a foot apart, she looked him right in the eye to let him know that she didn't appreciate the fact that he'd made such an important decision without her.

Then she slapped him across the face.

"If you **EVER** make such a big decision about my life again **without** consulting me first, I will kick your ass into the I.C.U! Do you understand me!" She yelled at him while poking him in the chest to drive her point home.

"Of course. Sure. You betcha!" Xander replied, looking genuinely sorry as he realized how things must've been from her point of view.

With that out of the way, she was free to move onto point two.

Pushing up on her toes a bit she gave him a quick kiss to the cheek.

"Still… thanks for helping me." She said, suddenly feeling a little shy and uncomfortable. "It was nice."

"Uh… yeah, that's me. Guy." Xander said, sounding a little dazed.

Everyone chucked at the sight of an almost speechless Saiyan, especially since Xander wasn't the sort to get thrown very easily. For her, though, she took a moment to think about what she'd just done, why she'd done it and whether or not she'd mind doing it again in the future. When her contemplation reached an end, she decided that now more than ever she wanted to see where a relationship with Xander would take her.

Whether it went someplace good or bad, she had no doubt that it'd be an interesting ride.

THE END?

Note: First of all I know that in official canon the Eternal Dragon was unable to do anything more than remove the bomb from her body. However this never made much sense to me. I mean a being strong enough to revive hundreds of thousands of people, restore an old withered Namek to his prime and bestow immortality on people should easily have the power to take a cyborg and make her human. So I decided to make a few changes and come up with some details of my own to explain things. Personally I think it makes more sense then the whole 'Gero just remodelled her' bit that they came up with in the "World Tournament" saga. Still if you're a canon-monger and hate any changes to the facts established by the people responsible for bringing us Dragonball Z then just consider this an AU (Alternate Universe).

Note 2: While I do have some ideas for a sequel I need to finish off more of my in progress fanfics before I can start writing it. All I can ask is for your patience and tolerance. I'm more or less at the mercy of my muse with this and I believe on putting out quality rather than just writing something for the sake of posting something.


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